


Welcome to the Madhouse

by shaunabuckingham



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman: Arkham Asylum (Video Games)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-11 00:32:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 58,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2046210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaunabuckingham/pseuds/shaunabuckingham
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Doctor Jones begins work at Arkham Asylum, she never imagined becoming involved with a character like the Joker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to the Madhouse

**Author's Note:**

> first batman fanfic, hope you enjoy it :)

I remember the day the asylum opened. The citizens of Gotham all took a deep breath of relief, watching as the cities most wanted and deranged criminals were lifted from Blackgate prison and placed upon the island where Arkham Asylum resided. The opening was broadcast on every news channel, showing off the brand new facilities and the sensational team of psychiatrists who all claimed that they would be working miracles and curing inmates left, right and center. The biggest announcement had been that Dr Jonathan Crane would be managing the team of doctors at the asylum. Crane was known all over the city for his successful career in curing mental disorders so it seemed only right to appoint him at Arkham..so everyone said anyway. The good doctor has also been my professor at university; the entire class felt a pang of sadness when he announced he would be moving on to greater things.

A year after the asylum was opened, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror readying myself for my first day at the damn place. My parents had objected to the idea, naturally, firstly due to its reputation for housing criminals such as Bane and the man who resembled a crocodile. Secondly, there was the incident that happened not long after the asylum was opened, where Dr Quinzel helped an inmate called the Joker escape who still to this day hasn't been found. The doctor on the other hand has since been arrested and sent to Blackgate. Fixing my pony tail, I took one final look in the mirror, you could tell I was a rookie psychiatrist, my face still didn't uphold that professional edge like Dr Crane, I was nervous and for a good reason too.

Flashing my new ID badge, the guard nodded and proceeded to open the large iron gates that separated the asylum from Gotham. With a piercing screech, I was allowed entrance and drove carefully down the road, it had started to rain and as I drew closer Arkham Asylum looked even more eerily gloomy.

The rumors I had heard from the news were true, the security at this place was tighter than anything meaning I had to go through various tests and scans before I was finally greeted by an old face. 

“Miss Jones, it’s a pleasure to see you again! Or should I say Doctor now?”  
“Hello Doctor Crane” I was embraced by my university professor as if we were old friends, the entire thing still seemed strange to me. Ending the hug, he straightened up and gestured towards the corridor, we began to walk through the asylum.

“I must say Doctor Jones, I was quite taken aback when I heard you would be working here.”  
“How so, Doctor Crane?”  
“No disrespect of course, I just always thought what with your quiet personality you would settle for a smaller, mediocre job, and please, call me Jonathan”.  
“Well, Jonathan I figured a more challenging job would better my career.” We turned a corner, making our way through a corridor of offices.  
“Oh, I must say you will find no trouble fitting in here, you always had remarkable talents even as a student.” Doctor Crane stopped next to an empty office room which had my name displayed on the office door in large black letters. I stood there, blushing at his comment.  
“Thank you, Jonathan. I’m guessing this is my office then?” Both of us gave a small laugh, and with that he opened the door introducing me to my very own office. Bouncing my way in excitedly, Crane begins the introduction.  
“As you can see, there is a computer on the desk to be strictly used for patient records, notes and research, not Facebook. There are also some files on the shelf behind you, should you wish to make paper based documents too. Next to the computer, is your day to day diary, here you will write each appointment date. I have marked out today’s schedule for you so that you can meet some of the patients you will be treating. If you need anything, my office is down the hallway here. Good luck, Doctor Jones.” With that, he gave a simple nod and swiftly left the room, the door swinging shut behind him.

The entire thing felt surreal to me. To be sitting in my very own office at Gotham’s finest asylum was something that I hadn't gotten my head around still. Picking the medium-sized diary up in my hand, I flicked through the pages to today’s date; my schedule was pretty small. I had only one patient to see today, and of course lunch was also written on the page in Doctor Crane’s handwriting. The patient’s name was ‘Pamela Isley” and our appointment wasn't until 11:30am.

After about an hour of going through her record on the asylum database, I began to feel a little nervous about speaking with my first patient. There wasn't much about her, apart from the state of her health which made a point of saying that she was immune to all poisons, viruses, bacteria and fungi, claiming to be the result of a failed experiment. I hadn't seen this woman for myself and couldn't imagine what the experiment had done to her appearance. Checking the clock on the wall beside me, I noticed that the appointment was looming ever so closely, standing up I decided to go get a coffee beforehand.

It felt like I had been walking for an eternity. The entire building looked the same everywhere I went, and only by asking directions from a friendly looking security guard, did I manage to find Pamela’s cell. There were two guards stood in front of the small room, clearly expecting my arrival. One of them gave me a smile before giving me some reassurance, aware that I probably seemed nervous for this first visit.

“Don’t worry Doctor Jones, Poison Ivy’s one of the only inmates that won’t attack ya as soon as she see’s ya” he gave a small chuckle which caused me to awkwardly smile back. The cell was opened and in I walked, noticing a figure draped over the bed.

“Good morning, Pamela”.


	2. Poison Ivy

As I spoke, the figure rose from the small bed bringing her face into the small cast of light in the room. I was greeted with a flourish of rouge red hair and a slim figure with green tinted skin. My feet stayed rooted to the concrete floor.

“You must be new. No one’s called me by my real name for a long time.” Pamela spoke in a quiet voice, merely staring at me with bright green eyes.

“One of the guards referred to you as ‘Poison Ivy’, care to explain?” I was trying my best to stay calm and collected and not break down in a bag of nerves. Pamela gave a small smile upon hearing her apparently well known persona name.

“Plants..the plants are my children, Doctor.” This time her voice was much more bold and clear.

“I see, but why the name, Pamela?”  
“Alright Doc, you seem a lot more decent compared to other staff around here, so I’ll tell you.”  
“Go on.” I nodded as I spoke, placing myself on a small chair situated within the cell.   
“I haven’t been in Gotham for very long. Upon my arrival, I became very mischievous and threatened to release poisonous spores all over the city. It didn’t work, of course. That’s why I’m here. Actually, the reason I’m here is because of the Batman. When I was caught, the story was shown all over the news and people began to refer to me as ‘Poison Ivy’ due to my actions and... unnatural skin tone”. My hand tore across the notebook with the pen, noting down everything she said. I began to wonder if she would fully open up to me, it would certainly improve my reputation at Arkham. However it was still my first day and I tried not to expect too much yet.

“So threatening Gotham..was this an act of revenge? Or perhaps a different motive?” Ivy still watched me curiously.

“You could say revenge. The truth was that I was enraged and everyone knows you shouldn’t mess with an angry woman.”  
“Why were you angry?”  
“I used to be good at science, especially botany and toxicology. There was a man, my professor to be exact. He...well he seduced me, persuading me to become a test subject for one of his experiments. Oh, they were agonisingly painful and the results were well.. take a look at me.”  
“The experiment caused an immunity to poisons and viruses, yes?”  
“I see you read my health records, the doctors were confused by it too.”  
“Yes, and I think that will be all for today.” Pamela nodded. “Our next meeting shall be on Thursday. Thank you, Miss Isley”. Standing up, I gestured towards the guard outside the cell and within a few moments my two feet were back standing in the corridor. A cool breeze washed over me, making me realise just how warm it was in Poison Ivy’s cell. 

Nodding towards both the guards, I began to walk briskly back to my office to review the notes I had messily scribbled in the small notebook Doctor Crane had given me. There was a huge smile upon my face, and my mind congratulated me for doing a great job with my first patient. 

Journeying to my office meant that I had to walk through the main corridor of the asylum and as I did so, I noticed Doctor Crane surrounded by a large number of security guards. My curiosity had gotten the better of me and decided to find out what was going on. Doctor Crane noticed me and gave a small smile.

“Finished with your first patient, Miss Jones?”  
“Yes, I feel we made some progress today.”  
“That is great news!” Crane patted my shoulder, I still felt a little uncomfortable when he did that.  
“What’s with all the security?” Jonathan seemed a little bit excited as he began to explain.  
“Well, we’re getting a new patient..well actually an old patient but he’s recently been arrested again.” I knew what Doctor Crane was talking about.  
“The Joker?”  
“Yes indeed! Maybe this time we’ll get a lot more progress in his treatment and possibly cure him. Ah, I think our guest has arrived.”

The doors swung open and the guards in the corridor sprang to life pointing their guns at the man in cuffs. Someone grabbed a hold of his arm and they began to walk. I hadn’t heard much about the Joker mostly because I never really bothered to watch the news or read the papers, but everyone else knew plenty about this character. As his face came into the light, I noticed the iconic greasepaint make up everyone talked about; a face painted white with black eyes and a sloppy red smile that spread from cheek to cheek emphasizing what looked to be real scars upon his face.

I couldn’t help but stare, I hadn’t seen the guy before. As he was dragged past by the guards, it felt like he was staring at me too. He seemed to actually be smiling however it was hard to distinguish through his make up. He winked at me before being carried off down the corridor. It was Jonathan Crane’s voice that brought me back into reality.

“It was nice seeing you Doctor Jones, but I’m afraid I have to go help our guest settle in.” Nodding my head, he gave me a smile and followed behind Joker and the swarm of guards surrounding him.

All of sudden, I felt a bit uneasy. A small sickness began to grow in the bottom of my stomach;I figured it was from being so close to Gotham’s most wanted. He had smiled at me I was sure of it, although my mind had no idea why. Maybe he just did that to everyone, but I couldn’t help but think that wasn’t the case.


	3. A Date with Crane

I had been working at Arkham Asylum for almost a year now. Pamela Isley was still my top priority patient and progression with her case had been magnificent. Over the last few months, the asylum has seen a great increase in the number of inmates coming through its doors, including serial killer Victor Zsasz; I shudder every time I walk past his cell. 

Doctor Crane still hasn’t made any progress with Joker. After each meeting with the self proclaimed ‘Clown Prince of Crime’, Jonathan comes into my office looking more stressed than the last time. The Warden is adamant to wanting Joker cured, yet no one can pinpoint an exact diagnosis of his mental state, one day it’s multiple personality disorder, the next schizophrenia. Crane has asked me several times to try with the clown yet I’m always very reluctant. I can still remember the day Joker came back to Arkham and the way he stared at me with his cold dark eyes. Being in a close proximity to the man makes you feel uneasy, it makes you want scream and run yet your feet rooted to the ground. 

I had tried looking into his records yet wasn’t surprised with the lack of detail within the notes. The one thing that intrigued me however was a quote from the psychiatrist who treated Joker before he escaped the facility who stated ‘the man enjoys his persona too much’. This gave me the idea that maybe he couldn’t be cured, that he didn’t want to be himself but I haven’t told Doctor Crane that; he’s already tearing his hair out about the whole case.

My work with Pamela had impressed the Warden and so allowed me to treat another of the high security inmates, something that doesn’t often happen for a doctor who has been working at the asylum for less than a year. It was a small achievement in my opinion and felt happy that I was progressing in my career. The patient in question was a man known as Bane, if you could call him a man. He had been using a drug called Venom to give himself immense strength and muscles that made him larger than the average man. This case has been a lot more difficult, Bane has refused to cooperate on many occasions and even threatened to ‘crush my tiny body’ during one of our sessions. Nonetheless I was determined to get a breakthrough.

I had been sat in my office for about two hours, trying to make sense of the Spanish that Bane had shouted at me during our session this morning. I had never been very good with languages and had almost failed Spanish during High School, it definitely wasn’t one of my strong points. A knock at the door made me jump slightly.

“Come in!” Doctor Crane flaunted in, smiling at me as he did every morning.   
“Afternoon, Miss Jones, I hope I haven’t interrupted you.”   
“No it’s fine, I was just finishing up.” Admitting defeat I placed Bane’s notes on the desk. Crane looked a lot more nervous than he usually did.  
“Alright, so I was thinking, would you like to join me for dinner at the restaurant in central Gotham tomorrow night?” My entire body froze up, and without thinking my mouth uttered words before I had even thought of them.  
“Yeah sure.” I couldn’t take it back now, curse my nervous mind. Doctor Crane’s face lit up like the lights you see on christmas trees.  
“Great! I’ll pick you up at around 8,” and with that, he left the room just as swiftly as he had walked in. My response had surprised me, I had never been to dinner with anyone and wasn’t too sure what to do. Women normally wore dresses to these types of things didn’t they? Most importantly, the information had finally sunk in..I was going out to dinner with Jonathan Crane, my university professor and now boss.

The Following Night:

I tried to keep my breathing steady as I sat in Crane’s car. Wearing a dress was uncomfortable, I had never been one for them. Doctor Crane was wearing a black tuxedo and actually looked pretty decent; it was much better than the Asylum uniform I always saw him wearing. Nonetheless, this was technically a date, and I had never been on a date. In fact, I had never kissed a guy. I had always been too nervous around men and preferred to focus all my attention to my studies but now I was an adult I had to face the inevitable and finally have a go at it.

We pulled up outside the restaurant, Crane immediately got out of the car, walked around and held the passenger door open for me. Stepping out, I nodded and gave a nervous smile toward him. He held out his arm and I took it, he led us both inside and to our table. To be honest, he was quite a gentlemen, a rare trait seen associated with men these days, I silently applauded the guy. Doctor Crane ordered champagne whose name made it sound terrible expensive. Whilst pouring the wine, a conversation was finally started, yet I wasn’t the one to start it.

“You look beautiful Miss Jones.” I wasn’t used to compliments either.  
“Thank you, call me April.” Great, now we were officially on first name basis. He handed me a glass of champagne whilst we spoke.   
“I have to be honest, I never thought you’d agree to this ‘date’.”  
“Well there’s a first time for everything, Jonathan.”  
“Indeed there is, which reminds me of the real reason I dragged you out here.” I couldn’t think of anything to say, so nodded whilst coyly sipping my beverage.  
“I know you haven’t been working at Arkham for long and I understand that this is a huge favour but I was wondering if you could take over the Joker case for me.” I was pretty sure I had choked on my champagne upon hearing that, trying my best to cover it up I replied quickly.  
“I’m not sure I’m ready to take on such a high level patient, Jonathan and besides he’s your case.”  
“Yes, and I’m afraid I need to hand over the case to another doctor, I have gotten absolutely nowhere with that man and would prefer to fully give my time to a piece of research I have been working on.”  
“What research could possible be more interesting than the Joker case?” Hadn’t I said before, I was reluctant to go anywhere near that mad clown?  
“You must keep this quiet April. For a few years, I have been working on a theory on the psychology of fear and I’m so close to a breakthrough with it, I’m sure of it! I can’t reveal too much as I still have to refine everything, however with Joker on my agenda I can’t continue with the research.” I couldn’t refuse, as much as I hated to admit it, Joker intrigued me, and I had wanted to work on his case but always felt I was never ready. However, here I sat with Jonathan Crane practically begging me to take the case, I couldn’t deny him.  
“Alright fine, I’ll take your Joker case.” I said, grinning hard.  
“Great!” We toasted to the ‘deal’ and somewhat celebrated by eating a fancy and no doubt expensive meal. We discussed work quite a bit, and by the end of the evening we were both a little tipsy from the champagne. Jonathan demanded he pay the bill, and I dread to imagine how much the dinner cost.

He arranged a taxi for me, and as it pulled up to the curb we proceeded to say our farewells. He gave me a hug and went on to kiss my cheek, I froze realising in my slightly drunk state what was happening. I said goodbye and quickly got in the taxi.

“So I’ll drop the case files on your desk tomorrow morning then?!” he called after me.

When finally I returned to my apartment, I flopped onto my bed and remembered what Jonathan meant about casefiles. I had agreed to being Joker’s psychiatrist.


	4. Laughter is the Best Medicine

I had been feeling sick since walking into work this morning. Praying that Jonathan had forgotten to give me the files on the Joker as I walked into my office left me disappointed as he had indeed delivered them to my desk. Flopping down into my chair, my hand cautiously hovered over file as if there were some invisible disease preventing my hand from opening it. It was easy to tell that these were Crane’s own notes as his handwriting was neatly visible on the top cover of the folder.

“Why did I agree to this again?” I had been repeating this to myself since returning home from dinner the previous evening; which had been quite a pleasant experience actually. After what seemed a lifetime of waiting, I flipped the file open and out sprawled a dozen pages of Jonathan’s personal theories and thoughts on Joker’s mental state. There were diagrams and equations, notes, lists and even a mugshot of the guy still donning his clown ‘warpaint’. I wonder if they had let him keep the makeup on when he arrived at the asylum? Maybe the guards had been too afraid to go near it, Joker made them uneasy which was remarkable because usually the security guards were unfazed by anything; they hardly flinched when the Dollmaker was brought in. On the other hand, I felt slightly sick upon seeing the mask he wore which contained parts of his father’s flesh so Doctor Crane told me.

My appointment with Joker was just under an hour away and the sickness within my stomach refused to disappear. I scribbled a few basic questions in my notebook in case my nerves decided to play up and my mind went to mush leaving me unable to remember anything; I hoped that wouldn’t happen.

“Just think April, he can’t be any worse than Bane,” I tried telling myself, but who was I fooling. This was the Joker, the self proclaimed Clown Prince of Crime and the guy who could break the minds of psychiatrists in a short space of time; take Doctor Quinzel and Jonathan. How long would it take before he broke my mind too? 

Taking a deep breath and reluctantly lifting myself from the chair, I left my office and headed towards Joker’s cell. Security around the clown had doubled since his arrival. After his previous breakout the Warden deemed it necessary to separate him from the other inmates and place him in his own high level security cell with twice as many guards surrounding him to ensure he didn’t escape again. Even with the doubled up security I couldn’t help but be fearful of what he could possible do to me.

Flashing my card towards the the security camera, the large doors opened and I was greeted by half a dozen guards chorusing ‘good morning Doctor’. I could see Joker sat within his small box staring at me through the glass. One of the guards granted me access to the cell and I proceeded to walk into the lions den.

The clown was already sat at a small table, another chair had been placed across the other side presumably for me. Walking in slowly and placing myself down on the wooden chair, I refused to look at him directly at first. Of course, the guards had let him keep his warpaint, it added to his character; one that made me feel uneasy.

“Well, good morning beautiful.” My eyes diverted to the source of who had spoken, and found myself staring at the Joker, His green hair was slowly being overtaken by dirty blonde roots, the makeup upon his face was smudged and the scars on his cheeks became even more noticeable.

“Good morning, my name is Doctor Jones.” I tried to keep my composure as best I could.  
“You seem nervous, doll. Is it the scars?”  
“I’ll be the one asking the questions during our sessions, Joker.” I had to dominate the conversation, otherwise he’d probably break my mind within minutes of him taking over.  
“If you say so, Doc,” the clown leaned back in his chair, refusing to break his dark glare towards me.  
“I thought maybe we could start with your childhood, since Doctor Crane hadn’t gotten very far with that subject.”   
“Doctor Crane,” Joker started, “he wasn’t much fun, too serious” the man began laughing to himself.  
“I see, so your childhood..”  
“You know, a man hears a lot of things whilst cooped up in this tiny box.”  
“Like what?” damn, I slipped up.  
“Your dinner date with old Craney yesterday.” Bastard was trying to get to me already.  
“How could you possibly know that?”  
“You two were the talk of the asylum this morning. The guards there,” he pointed to the half dozen stood outside the cell, “had a nice little chat about it.” he laughed to himself again; I now see why they call him the Joker.  
“It was just business.”  
“Oh, I ain’t jealous, honey. Although you are rather beautiful..” I could feel his eyes looking me up and down.  
“Stop that.”  
“Stop what, Doc?”  
“You may have been able to break Doctor Quinzel but it won’t work on me.” That’s right, stand your ground, April.  
“My lord, that girl was a pain in my ass for several months.”  
“I thought Harleen was your girlfriend?” Now we’re getting somewhere. Joker shifted his position in the chair again.  
“Look, I’m gonna be honest here and trust me that doesn’t happen very often. That girl was my way out of here, no more no less. I didn’t expect her to become sooo infatuated with me.”  
“I take it you know that she now resides at Blackgate prison?” The clown began laughing again, however this time it was more chaotic and twisted. It took a while before he could compose himself.

“GOOD!” he shouted. The guards outside all turned their heads at the same time. “Well, now I can sleep a little easier, knowing that psychotic bitch ain’t coming for me!” Joker laughed again, clearly enjoying this too much.

“Yes well, back to your childhood.”  
“Oh come now, Doc, don’t go all Doctor Crane on me, lighten up!” By now he was standing, towering over me. His smile was becoming wider as he cackled again, the sound vibrating off every wall and hitting me harshly. When he had finished, he swiftly brought the chair to my side of table, and before I knew it, the Joker was sitting beside me, his face inches from mine. He became a lot more intimidating close up.  
“They say laughter is the best medicine, isn’t that right Doctor Jones?” I could feel his breath upon my skin. I had noticed that he had a habit of licking his lips which he continued to do whilst in close proximity to me. He seemed to be getting closer,  
“I think we’ll end the session here.” I whispered. Standing up, I signalled to the guard who then allowed me to leave the lions den. I could feel Joker staring at me as I briskly walked away.

“Until next time, dollface!” he called out to me.


	5. A Taste of Fear

After my meeting with Joker, I didn’t return to my office. Instead, my time was spent inside the small cafeteria that reminded me of lunch halls back at high school. My mind had been torturing itself, replaying the bellowing laughs and sinisters giggles I had heard not long before. I began to feel quite out of my depth and debated giving the case back to Doctor Crane, it was a rather silly idea thinking I could do this. One meeting with that clown had thrown my mental state to near breaking point already. He was clever, I’ll give him that.

For some reason, it felt as though the same cold eyes were staring me. It was all psychological of course, yet my entire body and mind had been on edge since leaving his cell. I understood why Jonathan wanted to rid himself of the case, Joker was a difficult man to crack and refused to answer almost all of the questions I asked; clearly there’s something he’s hiding or he would’ve simply answered the questions about childhood. Either that or the previous psychiatrist was right - he does enjoy his persona too much.

How long did it take before Doctor Quinzel fell madly in love with him? I bet he was trying to do the same with me..slick bastard. I must admit he has a way with words however I refuse to become the next ‘Harley Quinn’. It’s very unprofessional for doctor to have a relationship with any of their patients. Quinzel is just an active example of why psychiatrists need to be strong minded and capable of dealing with patients like the Joker. I began to think I wasn’t strong enough either. 

“Maybe I should just stick to treating Pamela and Bane.” I said to myself over and over again. My pen had begun to run out, as I had spent a good long while writing in my little notebook that Jonathan gave me writing my own theories about the Clown Prince of Crime’s mental state. There was clearly something wrong with him, no one could deny that but trying to give an exact diagnosis was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Impossible!

That was it, I had to tell Jonathan that I couldn’t take the case. He would just have to find another Doctor. Leaving the cafeteria, I threw my pen in the trash can; it no longer worked anyway. Crane had his own lab down on the lower levels of the Asylum, the Warden was more than happy to let Jonathan use the space for his own research. It was Doctor Crane, who would refuse? My only problem was finding it. There had to be a select few around here who knew of it’s whereabouts. My best guess was Crane’s personal secretary, she may be a blonde bimbo but she had to know something.

I had spoken with ‘Tina’ or Barbie has I had nicknamed her, only once before and had come merely moments away from giving her a slap across the face. Luckily for her, the good Doctor Crane appeared before any real damage to her plastic face could be made. Those boobs certainly were real either yet she had no shame in flaunting them about the office in front of the male doctors, on purpose of course. Upon my meeting with Tina, I had only asked where Crane was and she had made up some nonsense about him not meeting any visitors that day and I clearly remember the comment she made about my makeup.

I gritted my teeth as I approached Barbie, preparing to give my most positive and fake smile. There she sat at her desk, chewing on a piece of gum and staring at the screen of her computer; I swear all receptionists looked like this. She looked up, giving me daggers with her icy blue eyes.

“What ya want?” she said coldly.  
“I’d like to know where Doctor Crane is, thank you.”  
“Ugh, are you dating him or something? That’s all you ever ask me.” Barbie turned her gaze back to the computer screen. I bet she wasn’t even doing any real work, probably checking her Facebook or something. A few moments went by, and neither of us spoke. I glared at her whilst she glared at the computer screen. Finally she seemed to given.  
“He’s at the lab, go to the basement, turn right and you should see the door.”  
“Thanks Barbie.” Grinning at her, I waved goodbye and proceeded to walk back down the corridor, the faint voice of Tina echoed behind me.

“Barbie?!! Excuse me?” I chuckled to myself as my feet began to make their way to the basement. It always took so long to get from one place to another, the only downside to having a huge facility such as this but at least it got me doing exercise. 

Entering the basement level, a cold wave swept over me and was glad that I was wearing my white coat otherwise my entire body would probably be shivering right now. It seemed lighting had not been the architects priority when he had been designing the basement. There were perhaps half a dozen lights, and found that I was squinting my eyes quite a bit. Turning right, I began to look for a door which held Jonathan’s name upon. 

It felt like I had been walking for eternity and the corridor only seemed to get longer and longer. The temperature seemed to be dropping quite rapidly the deeper into the basement I ventured. At last I came across a door labelled ‘Crane’ and placed my hand upon the doorknob, the door swung open almost instantly and found myself falling and tripping inside the room. 

Standing still, I took a moment to look at my surroundings. The light was pretty low for a laboratory and there was a foul smell in the air that caused me to choke and splutter for a few seconds. There were vast amounts of chemicals littered all over the place, some labelled and some not, some were empty and some still held its contents.Test tubes were strewn all over the place, and it seemed Crane had not bothered to clean some of them, for dusty remains still clung to the glass sides. Smoke was also emanating from a conical flask placed on a tripod where a bunsen burner produced a flame underneath.  
“Doctor Crane!” I called out to him, but it felt like I was the only one in the room. Now I wondered if he really was down here. There was no sign of him in his office or on any of the wards but Tina had said that he was here. I continued inspecting his research, not having the faintest clue on what it was he was studying however it seemed fascinating. There were some chemicals here that I hadn’t heard of and never thought existed.

“Jonathan?!” Still no sign of him. I was about to give up my search when I came across a strange looking canister placed carefully upon one of the surfaces. My curiosity had once again gotten the better of me and picked the metal canister up in my hands. Shaking it, I could faintly hear the presence of a liquid product although I had not a clue as to what it could be. 

Looking the can over, I must have come across a switch. Before I know it, my head was surrounded by a cloud of gas and my vision became fuzzy. I think I had screamed at one point but wasn’t sure but was definitely aware I had fallen to the ground. My breathing became erratic as bugs began to crawl all over my skin. The room seemed darker and my body began to tense up as a figure loomed above me. The face was distorted and evil-looking, I felt my mouth open but heard no words, my vision was becoming darker and the space around me seemed to be getting smaller. It felt as though the mere life of me was being drained away, and then everything became black. 

***  
I found myself staring at a ceiling that was unfamiliar. There was a smell of coffee and bacon in my nose and saw that I was laying in a bed that was not my own. 

“Oh god, please tell me I haven’t been kidnapped.” I didn’t dare move myself from the bed, instead I stayed exactly where I was, Looking around, I noticed that this was a pretty fancy apartment and realised it must belong to someone of immense wealth. At first my mind thought of Bruce Wayne but his standards were probably a lot higher than this and that was saying something. The room was a bright white with a gold border running along each wall. As I was trying to figure out more about the person who owned the place, the door on the left creaked open and in came a face familiar to me.

“Jonathan?” He greeted me with that same smile I saw every morning. In one of his hands he held a mug, presumably why I had smelt coffee, and in the other hand, he held a plate with a bacon sandwich placed upon it. He sat down next to me, realising that I was very confused about this entire situation; one moment I had been at work, the next I had woken up in my boss’s bed.

“I suppose I should explain while you’re here and not in work, April.” The best I could do was nod, and gesture at him to continue.  
“I’m not sure you remember but, you were down in my lab presumably you had come looking for me. Coincidentally, I had left the lab for a brief moment and while I was gone, it seemed you had found something that I had been working on. You must have inhaled the gas, for I found you collapsed on the floor. I couldn’t have the Warden finding out that an employee had been hurt otherwise he’d shut down my research so I brought you back to my place to recuperate.” My eyes had been focused on the expensive cream carpet whilst he spoke, I was finding it difficult to form words and sentences.  
“I’m sorry, April, please understand I’d never to do anything malicious to you. You mean too much to me.” I couldn’t stay mute, the man was practically begging at me.  
“I’m just curious, what was the gas?”  
“It was just a mixture of chemicals I had been messing around with.”  
“It...it made me feel..anxious..scared..and fearful.” I struggled with the last part of the sentence, brief moments were coming back to me of what the gas had felt like.  
“Shh, it’s okay now.” Doctor Crane had now gently placed his hands on my cheeks, stroking one of them with his fingers. My body tensed up, this scene partially reminded of me when the Joker had sat just inches away from my face. Jonathan then placed his lips on my forehead and planted a small kiss there. I still new to this type of thing, how does someone react to a moment like this? 

My head was released from his gentle grip and instructed me to drink the coffee and eat the bacon telling me it would make me feel better. I felt a little sick, but abided to his instructions anyway. 

“After you’re finished, I’ll take you home, April.” With that, he left the room. I sat cross legged on his silk red bed, sipping coffee and thinking over today’s shenanigans. I was pretty sure Jonathan had some sort of feelings towards me, but also that he wasn’t telling me everything about the research he was conducting in that lab of his.


	6. An Agent of Chaos

It felt awful, avoiding Jonathan like this, but it just felt too weird. Sure he was a genuinely nice guy but at the end of the day, the guy was my boss. I wasn’t even sure on how old he was, but he was definitely older, yet his face still held qualities that made him seem young.

Admittedly I have never been in a relationship, so maybe that is why this new affection from Crane is making me feel uneasy. Arriving at work this morning, he greeted me at the entrance to which I politely smiled back and dashed to my office to avoid confronting him again. 

After he had dropped me home the previous evening, I found it difficult to sleep. In my mind, images flashed from when I had been intoxicated by the foul substance that Jonathan had been working on. Every so often, it still felt as if bugs were crawling over my skin and I couldn’t help but shiver each time the thought popped into my head. What on earth was he working on? I had a feeling it wasn’t for a good purpose, the man always seemed to be hiding something yet whenever I stood in his presence he seemed to be the happiest, most calm and collected guy on the entire planet. Paranoia was definitely starting to kick in, and if I keep this up, I’ll end up in this place alongside Bane and the damn Joker.

Speaking of the clown, I remembered our next session would be later on this afternoon. Could this week get any worse? I wasn’t sure I could be in the company of Joker again without going completely insane this time. He was such a difficult character and frustrated me to the point where I felt like screaming at him.He’d probably enjoy that just a little bit too much. During our last meeting, Joker had relished in the moment of watching me squirm as he had pushed his scarred face close to mine intimidating me. I wasn’t afraid to admit that he did indeed intimidate me. the clown had a way with words and the way he carried his voice and persona is enough to terrify anybody. This time, I had to make it clear that I was in charge, not him.

A shrill noise filled the office room, the telephone that I rarely use began to ring. Nobody really used those unless it was an emergency. Figuring it was indeed an emergency, I gripped the phone loosely in my hand which had begun to sweat a little. There was silence on the receiver end.

“Hello?” There were still a few more moments of silence before I heard the voice of a woman whom I hadn’t really wanted to confront any time soon.  
“Listen, I still remember whachyou called me yestaday, and I ain’t forgiven ya for that yet.”  
“Good afternoon Tracey.” My free hand began to massage my forehead. Speaking to her always gave me such a headache, it still amazes me how it hasn’t driven her boyfriend crazy yet. She continued to aggravate my growing headache.  
“Now Doctor Crane was wondering if ya were free for coffee in the next hour or so? Don’t ask me why he hasn’t asked ya himself.” Jonathan was becoming ever-growingly persistent, and I still hadn’t gotten over yesterday’s fiasco down in the lab.  
“Sorry Trace, I’ve got an appointment with a patient in 40 minutes.” This was in fact true.  
“Ya boyfriends gonna be upset to hear that, Doc.”  
“He’s not my--” The call ended before I could finish my sentence and I slammed the phone back down, hurting my hand a little in the process. Jonathan and I were not a thing, we had never been a thing so it was frustrating that everyone was thinking that. Even the Joker knew about Crane’s affections for me, and I still wasn’t sure whether he had heard it from the guards or not. He had escaped from his cell once before, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it again. Anyway, time to face him once again.

***

As I walked into the cell, I began to feel a strong impulse to turn around sharply and run the fuck out of that room. Joker was sat in the very same spot as in our previous session giving me the same intimidating stare through his dark and cold eyes. He still wore the greasepaint, and wore a smug expression upon his face.

“I knew you couldn’t stay away for long, doll.” He spoke quite boldly. His nature was slightly arrogant so it became apparent.  
“Good afternoon, Joker.” Confidently sitting opposite him, he placed his arms upon the table, leaning toward me eyeing the notebook I placed upon the table. “I thought we’d talk about something a little different, today.”  
“Oh, goody. I love questions.” He favours sarcasm too, it seems.  
“So tell me, what is your real name? Because you certainly weren’t born with the name Joker.” Surprisingly, I didn’t flinch when he began to laugh, it almost seemed normal now.  
“Ooh, you’d love to know my name wouldn’t you princess. How about you tell me yours first, hmm?”  
“April.”  
“Aprillll.” The name rolled off of his tongue. I had never really liked my name, but I couldn’t deny he made it sound a lot better. “A pretty name for a pretty woman.” I would not give in to his flattery.  
“Okay, what about the makeup, what’s the deal with that?” He laughed once more.  
“Simple, it intimidates people.”  
“And what about the--”  
“The scars? Oh doll, your questions are becoming too predictable.” By now he had stood up, and walked around the table. Joker was now standing right behind me, and I began to panic as he leant over me, his breath tickled my skin, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Enlighten me with something else, honey.” My body shivered from his words.  
“Alright, what is the purpose of what you do?” He was still standing behind me, his small laughter began to make me feel uneasy. One of his hands had snaked their way to my right shoulder and gripped it tightly.   
“Now that’s a question I like to hear!” Joker cleared his throat before continuing. “You see, nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying. If I were to tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds.”  
“I--I don’t underst---” Joker’s hand had now gripped itself around my throat pulling me closer into him. He began to whisper in my ear.  
“I ain’t finished yet, dollface.” I tried to pull away but his grip continued to tighten around my neck. “ Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos..it’s fair.” He began to nuzzle his face into my neck, why hadn’t the guards noticed this yet?  
“Have I told you, April Jones, that you, are very beautiful indeed.” I could feel my entire body shaking as now both of his hands were wrapped around me. I should’ve given the case back to Jonathan sooner.

I threw my head back, smacking Joker square in the face causing him to loosen his grip on me to which I ran towards the other end of the cell and turned to face him. Blood had begun to trickle from his nose, and he seemed to be giggling through the pain. By now, the guards had noticed the commotion and all had their guns trained on the clown. One of them ran to open the cell door so that I could leave. 

“You got a little fight in you, I like that.” He growled towards me, still smiling. The words made me feel sick to my stomach. I felt like hitting him again, however he would definitely enjoy it too much, I had suspicions he was a bit of a sadist masochist. The cell door was now open and in rushed two guards who stood either side of Joker. Picking up my notebook, my feet could not walk me any quicker out the door before I heard the clown call out to me.

“Don’t worry baby, I like it rough!”  
“Shut it, clown!” one of the guards bellowed. I was left with Joker’s howls of laughter ringing in my ears as I turned into the adjoining corridor. Leaning against the wall, a breath of relief escaped my lips. I could honestly say that was the most nerve-racking experience in my entire life, and that I never ever want to be in that position again. I began to hurry along to the cafeteria to get some coffee and take a very long break.


	7. Anarchy

It had been a week since the incident with Joker. In truth, the session had left me a little shaken, I mean who wouldn’t be completely terrified if Joker had wrapped his arm around their neck. Was he starting to break me? How much longer would I last on this case? So many questions that no one could provide the answers too, not even myself. My entire mind was a complete mess as of right now, apart from dealing with the clown, I had two other cases that also needed my full attention and I was sure that Jonathan Crane did have ‘those’ kind of feelings for me and I still wasn’t sure how to react about it.

I mean, Crane is a pretty nice guy and I suppose I like him too, however I wasn’t sure if the whole thing was completely appropriate considering he is my boss and there is a substantial age difference between us. He was my professor in university for Christ’s sake. But on the other hand, he had looks on his side, and no one could deny Jonathan looked very young for his age; even I admit he was very good looking. I was quite surprised he wasn’t already married or something. He should be.

As for me, I had never considered myself ‘attractive’ and had certainly never had a lover of any kind. Back in high school and university, I mostly kept to myself focusing more on my studies and working towards getting my degree whereas the majority of my friends fell in with lots of guys, some who were nice and others who were complete assholes. That’s probably the reason why I had never really tried with boys, the most I had come across came off as ignorant and acted all high and mighty about themselves and never really gave two shits about the girlfriends they were with. I think as a teenager I wasn’t ready to deal with the emotions that came with the whole dating/relationship scene, and once my small group of friends began having sex and having real boyfriends, that when’s the entire thing began to overwhelm me and so I became quieter and kept to myself mostly.

I guess I did like Jonathan; he was compassionate, thoughtful, kindhearted and seemed to care about me a lot. There were still some mysteries about him, but everyone had some secrets didn’t they? My thought process was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. In walked the very man I had been thinking of.

“Hello Jonathan.” Smiling, I was genuinely happy to be in his presence.  
“Hey.”  
“How are you today?”  
“I’m fine. I actually came here to see how you were doing, April. One of the guards told me about the incident with Joker earlier this week.” I was hoping him of all people would not find out about this.   
“Oh that? No, I’m fine honestly.” He placed himself on my desk, as there seemed to be a lack of chairs in the office.   
“Are you sure? No one’s seen you this week. They say you’re in here most days, by yourself.”  
“Honestly, Jonathan there’s no need to worry, I was just a little shaken up, that’s all.”  
“But, I do worry about you April.” He raised his hand, stroking my cheek softly.   
“Actually, Jon, I wanted to ask you something.”  
“Go ahead.”  
“I was curious to know if you were busy next Friday night?”  
“And if I’m not busy?”  
“Then I’d ask you to come around to my place for dinner.”   
“Dinner sounds perfect.” A huge smile formed on his face.  
“7?”  
“Even better.” Crane gave a small wink, nodded towards me and swiftly left the room mumbling about his research. Also I just invited Jonathan over for dinner. My stomach sank as I realised that my cooking skills were kinda poor and could barely make dinner decent enough for one let alone two. At least I had a week to prepare a meal. Speaking of food, it felt like I hadn’t eaten for days and so stood up quickly from my seat noticing that the clock read 1:34pm. For a building that housed the criminally insane, the cafeteria staff made some pretty good food however that was probably because it was a staff only canteen. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how low the food quality is for the inmates, Pamela had mentioned it before during one of our meetings but I didn’t really want to be put off of my own food.

***

I had sat in the canteen for well over an hour, enjoying the turkey sub I bought. I wasn’t even sure if I had breakfast this morning, that was how hungry I felt. Nonetheless, I had a job to do, so after a moment of blissful eating I began to make my way back to the office.

Everything seemed quiet, too quiet. Turning into the main corridor, there were no guards posted at the double doors which separated us doctors from the inmates. There was an ID card on the floor, and for the third time that I can remember, my damn curiosity got the better of me. Walking towards the doors, I bent down and picked up the card; it belonged to a guard but there was no sign of him. Something on my fingers felt wet, flipping over the card, I noticed that there was blood smeared across the back. My fingers relaxed and allowed the ID badge to fall back to the floor. Something was very wrong indeed, and I felt the need to back away from the door a bit.

A harsh noise instantly filled the corridor, swallowing it and the entire facility. I had never personally heard it, but I knew what the siren meant, they had told me the very first day that I arrived here. That noise indicated that an inmate had gotten loose. This was serious, and yet here I was still standing by the goddamn door that the escapee would most probably use. I began to rush my feet along the corridor and back to my office where I could lock myself in using the security codes.

Not long before I had made it to the end of the corridor, did the double doors that I had just been standing by swing open. Turning my head, a wave of dread washed over me as my eyes focused on what had been behind the doors. Not one...but several inmates stood in the doorway, two of them swinging pipes in their hands. They had definitely noticed me, for the largest of the group was staring directly back at me. He put one foot in front of the other marching towards me with the rest following behind. 

Panicking, I pushed through the door that lead to the offices. My heart rate began to increase, I couldn’t see any other doctors in the hallway however I was too busy trying to save my own life trying to reach my office. The hallway did seem a bit of a mess though, I did notice that, yet now wasn’t the right time to stop and observe, as I heard the door behind me being kicked open and the shouts of men echoed off my back.

I ran hard the last few meters and finally stood in front of the door that boldly showed off my name in black letters. There was no time to waste and so opening the door, I rushed in and slammed the wooden door behind me. I stood on the spot for a moment, trying to regain control of my breathing. What the fuck was going on? Where were the other doctors? Why had everything become...chaos?

Stepping towards my desk, I noticed that the room was very dark, the only piece of light was from the small little lamp that always sat unused on my desk. That’s odd? Switching on my computer, I tried to access the security codes that were stored on there so that the room could become secure. However, before I could complete the task, I felt a hand grab the back of my head and force it towards the surface of the desk. I began to panic once again, a small scream escaped my mouth as I realised that my body was bent over a table and there was a stranger behind me holding me down. I shuddered as a warm breath tickled my neck.

“Like I said, you introduce a little anarchy and it upsets the established order.” How the fuck did the goddamn Joker get into my office?!  
“Chaos.”I whispered, he was going to break me one way or another.  
“Finally you understand.” He whispered back. His hand still firmly gripped on the back of my head.  
“But how did y--.”  
“Not now dollface, we gotta get out of here!” With that, he brought my head back up, and this time slammed it down on the hardened surface. He let go, and my head began to feel fuzzy and my body felt weak. I heard the door open, looking up I could just about make out the inmates that had chased me down the corridor and into this trap. The largest came and stood next to Joker and leaned across him, picking up my now limp body. I noticed that the siren was still creating that harsh noise, Where were the guards? Where was Jonathan? How had the Joker escaped? These were questions that had to be answered later for I felt my mind drift out of conscientious and into darkness.


	8. The Clown Prince of Crime

The first thing that hit me was an awful stench filling my nose. It smelt like blood and dirt, and I was hoping it wasn’t my own blood. A dull pain ached throughout my entire skull and there was an even worse throbbing sensation in the middle of my forehead which twinged with pain each time my face wrinkled up. My eyes felt heavy and I was trying my hardest to keep my eyelids open, it took me a while to get used to the dim lighting in the room. My body still felt weak and it took all the strength within me to pull myself up into a sitting position. 

It was clear that I had passed out however I didn’t recognise the surroundings. At first I thought I had woken up in Jonathan’s apartment again, but this room certainly didn’t have expensive carpets or fancy walls. In fact, there was no carpet, only the cold hard concrete that my body had been lying upon which probably explained the reason why my back felt so stiff. I could hear a voice outside the room.

“Where did ya put the girl?!” I recognised that voice.  
“Uh, down there boss.”  
“You...put MY girl in the dirty dark basement?!” His girl? Was he referring me to me?  
“Yes, sir.” I heard a thud and the sound of a body falling to the floor.  
“Feel lucky I didn’t kill ya this time.” The sound of a door knob being turned came next, and my eyes squinted a little ass a slash of light filled the room partially. I couldn’t see yet who had opened the door yet it was probably the voice I had recognised just a moment ago, however I couldn’t remember the face. My head was still a daze.

The stairs creaked as a pair of feet emerged from behind the door. The figure made his way down and a sickness churned within my stomach as his face was revealed by the light. A face fresh with white paint, black eyes and a sloppy red smile stared at me, almost instinctively I began to shuffle away as he got closer. My back was greeted with a cold wave as I had reached the wall. Joker stopped and licked his lips as he habitually did.

“Stand up.” He commanded. I kept my back pressed up against the cool wall, whatever the clown wanted from me couldn’t be good. Joker sighed at my lack of compliance.  
“Come on,” he bent over and tightly gripped my arm, pulling me up with him, “get up.” Standing on my feet proved difficult due to the pain that still resided in my head. My body leaned a little more forward than it was meant to, and found myself pressing my cheek to the clown’s chest. He had stopped me from falling. Before I could look up, he grabbed my wrist once again, only more gentle this time, and began to pull me towards the stairs. I was reluctant about what was to happen if I left the room and pulled back slightly. Joker sighed again.

“Look, do you wanna stay in the shitty basement or somewhere more...comfortable?” He seemed to be getting a little impatient.  
“Why am I here?” were the first words that I spoke.  
“I’ll get to that later, now are we going or what?” I couldn’t think of anything else to say, my brain seemed to be unable to form proper sentences, everything still throbbed painfully. The best I could do was dare to look at him and nod.  
“Good.” He murmured. Pulling my arm again, he led us both to the door and soon we entered a corridor that was full of light but we didn’t stop. We made our way to the end of the long hallway and turned right then left which took us up a flight of stairs into another corridor; a smaller one this time. 

In just a few short moments, we were both standing in front of a door and Joker wasted no time in opening it. He pushed me inside and followed behind. Walking around slowly I was surprised on how clean and tidy the room actually was. There was a four posted bed that dominated the majority of space in the room, and the walls were painted a dark royal purple with an ivy green border going across the top. The bed sheets were also a dark shade of purple. I turned to face Joker who was leaning into the doorway, watching me.

“Is this..?”  
“My room? Yes, although I don’t use it very often so you don’t have to worry much about me sneaking in during the middle of the night.” He winked at me whilst saying his piece. I felt a little uneasy.  
“You’re a doctor right?”   
“Yes.”  
“So, you know how to deal with cuts and other various wounds.”  
“Umm, I mean yes, but I’m not a surge--”  
“Good!” Before I could finish my sentence, he gave me one last sinister smile, and shut the door behind him, leaving me stood in his room. As soon as I knew he was gone, I rushed towards the window, when I first entered the room it seemed to be the most possible escape route. However looking out, I saw there was a large drop which would most likely kill me if I just so happened to hop out of the window. I couldn’t just walk out of the door either, because it was mostly likely that Joker had some men working for him who would probably kill me if they saw me attempting to escape. Instead I just flopped down on the silk sheets of the four poster bed and closed my eyes, wondering what the hell was going on.

***

I wasn’t sure how long I had been asleep for, but I was woken up by someone knocking the door furiously. Sliding off the bed, I dragged my feet along the soft carpet and opened the door, rubbing my sleep-filled eyes. Stood before me, was a large burly man wearing a clown mask, at first I was startled before I soon realised it must have been Joker’s men. At least he had the decency to knock.  
“You gotta come, Doc!”   
“What?!”   
“Come on.” I followed the guy down the corridor, curious as to what could have happened. Halfdown down the hallway, the guy sharply turned right and flew down a flight of stairs, it was hard to keep up with such a big guy. He turned another right, and we both walked into what looked to be a living room filled with several guys all of whom shared the same look of pain on their faces. Some held their arm or leg, others had blood dripping down their foreheads. The living room itself was dirty which only added to the horrific scene that was laid out in front of me. There was a small tv situated in the corner, turned off. and most of the men sat down on small wooden chairs.

“April!” I spun around, wondering which of the group could possibly know my name, until I spotted a familiar looking clown slouching on the sofa. He didn’t seem to be writhing around in pain like the other’s however the sleeve of his white shirt was torn and there was a mass amount of blood seeping out of the wound.I quickly walked over toward him.

“What happened?” I dared to ask.  
“I’ll tell ya, dollface if you hurry up and stitch me.” He sounded annoyed, probably because of the wound.  
“Where’s the--”  
“On the table over there.” He nodded his head in right direction and I immediately followed. Why was I doing this again? Oh yeah, because Joker had fucking kidnapped me and would probably murder me in cold blood if I disobeyed him. I was stuck here. I grabbed the first aid box and rushed back over to Joker, sitting beside him awkwardly on the sofa. Looking at the size of the wound, I realised I had to ask the most awkward question if I were to successfully stitch it.

“Um, could you..take your shirt off, please.” I asked quietly, hoping he didn’t mistake the meaning for something else. He looked at me, his scarred cheeks stretching into a long grin.  
“Oh, but we hardly know each other, April.”  
“Look, do you want me to fix this or not?” I heart skipped a beat, realised I had just spoken up against the Joker. My body froze and we both just looked at each other for a moment, his face had stiffened slightly. Then he proceed to remove his green waistcoat, and white shirt stained with blood, slowly of course. I tried to restrain myself from looking at him, but my eyes betrayed me as they scanned the tanned, muscled body that was sitting next to me. I wasn’t sure if I was blushing or not, I just didn’t expect the Joker to be..well..hot. I bet underneath the makeup, he had a great face too plus the scars. 

I tried to focus on the task in hand but my hand couldn’t grip the needle and thread properly. There was no disinfectant spray so I had to make do with the most that was here. My left hand took hold of his arm gently and I couldn’t help but notice how toned his arm looked too, ‘April focus’. My eyes looked over the wound carefully, it was a deep cut but nothing that was going to be fatal but it would definitely leave a scar. Using a cloth, I wiped away the blood and placed the needles on the skins surface. I looked up, Joker had been watching me.

“This might hurt.” He raised his eyebrows at me, letting me know that he didn’t care about the pain. I carried on and began to carefully stitch the broken skin back together. It was true I was a psychiatrist however I had had a few courses in first aid and medical situations so I did know a thing or two about stitching, and I must admit my work on Joker’s arm was pretty good so far.

“How did this happen?” I asked, maybe hoping for an answer.  
“Well, let’s just say I was busy making a comeback.” I looked up and saw him wink at me. I always felt uncomfortable when he did that.  
“Doing what exactly?”  
“We robbed a bank.” My hand stopped stitching up the wound for a moment. This man had just robbed a bank and received a nasty wound to his, and yet he looked completely calm. Then again, this was Joker the Clown Prince of Crime; the man who had now escaped from Arkham twice. I carried on with the stitching and when it came to the end, I knotted it and cleaned away any remaining blood. Joker had watched me the entire time, and when I gestured my hands in a way that said I was done, he raised his arm and inspected it.

“You’re good, sweetheart, very good.” he growled the last part and looked at me once again, I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that all the time, “now I’d like you to check over my guys, and then you can head back to my room and get some sleep.” He didn’t bother to pick up his shirt, and instead brushed past me shirtless and left the room without saying another word.


	9. Chelsea Smile

I didn’t get much sleep that night, it was too hot and there were too many things on my mind. It was like every single thought in my brain were colliding with one another constantly, refusing to make any kind of sense. Yesterday morning I had woken up in my own bed, and had gone off to work just like any other normal day. Now I was lying in the bed of Gotham’s most wanted criminal, stitching up wounds and pretending that this was normal. I wanted to scream and shout until I lost my voice, I wanted to run until my feet ached and burned, but I couldn’t. If I dared to do either of those things, I’d most likely end up dead, although that was becoming ever more favourable as the hours went by,

There was only one question I wanted to know the answer to and that was ‘why me?’. Out of all the doctors that were at Arkham Asylum; which were quite a lot; why did Joker choose me, I mean sure he was my patient but I wasn’t exactly the most useful person on the planet. I could barely cook anything without burning it, let alone play nurse to a psychotic clown and his henchmen.

Speaking of which, I had spent well over two hours checking all of those guys over, some of which had more severe wounds than Joker did. My sewing skills only got me so far and the surgical thread was near gone by the time I had checked over the last henchmen. They never took off their masks it seems, maybe it was a Joker gang thing, I didn’t really understand. 

My body ached, mostly because I was tired but my head still throbbed from where Joker had smashed my head against the desk. My hand hovered over the dried blood that stuck to my forehead and my hair. I felt dirty and unclean, just like everything else in this hell hole and was desperate for a shower. There was a bathroom joined onto this bedroom, but when I had inspected it earlier there was no sign of any scented body lotion or a single bottle of shampoo to assist with cleaning myself. I wanted to ask someone for a little bit of shampoo but was too afraid to walk out of the room. 

A sharp knock resonated from the door, and my body jumped slightly, I was very jumpy lately so it seems, but who could blame me. My aching legs walked over to the door, and one of my arms lazily grabbed the doorknob and cautiously opened the white door. Peeking from the small gap, I noticed it was one of the henchmen that I had fixed up earlier.

“Yes?” I said quietly through the small gap.  
“Uh, listen,” A gruff muffled voice echoed from behind the clown mask, “I-uh, I just wanted to thank you for fixing up my arm here.” He lifted his left arm up, surprisingly he still had it neatly covered with the bandage I had wrapped around the wound.  
“Um, you’re welcome.” The door was now fully open and we stood in front of each other, I felt a little more comfortable at this moment.   
“Listen, if there’s anything you need, just ask me. I owe you one.” He said,a sense of laughter in his voice. The thought of a hot shower still loomed in my mind, and I took this opportunity before I lost.”  
“Speaking of which, do you think you could get me something?”  
“Of course.” It was slightly difficult to hear the guy through the mask.  
“Would you be able to acquire some shampoo and shower gel for me? I’m kinda desperate for a shower.” I half smiled at him, trying to act as sweet as possible. He nodded.  
“Sure, I’ll be back soon.” He quickly walked off down the corridor, and I shut the door quietly, it was still early in the morning and I’m pretty sure the other henchmen wouldn’t appreciate being woken up.

A few moments had passed, and I began to think that the guy was never gonna come back with the damn shampoo. Just when I was about to give up on the whole thing, a sharp knock echoed from the door for the second time today. I opened the door, and saw the same henchmen stood in the doorway holding out several bottles of pink shampoo and shower gel. Taking them, I cradled them in my arms like a small baby, I probably looked a little crazy.

“Thank you so much!” The guy gave a small chuckle.  
“Hey, I did owe you one.” I continue to smile at him. It was ridiculous but at a time like this it felt similar to Christmas receiving these gifts. “Just promise me, you won’t tell the boss about this, I had to sneak into Harley’s old room to get these.” I nodded my head a bit too excitedly, and he waved goodbye and walked down the corridor.

Shutting the door, I practically ran to the bathroom clutching my luxuries and fumbled with the cord for the shower. Whilst waiting for the water to get warm, I quickly stripped out of my work clothes which had gotten slightly bloody from last night’s surgery. Finally I stepped into the warmth and a sigh of relief escaped my lips. I let the water wash over me, closing my eyes in utter bliss. Reaching for the shampoo, I squeezed the pink lotion out of the bottle and proceeded to scrub the blood out of my hair. This felt good, and the shampoo smelled quite nice even knowing this had belonged to Harley. 

Rinsing the shampoo from my now clean hair, I couldn’t help but think, strange considering I haven’t been able to think properly for the past few hours. I guess showers had their ways of making you think a little clearer. But I couldn’t help but think about what the henchman had said to me earlier; the fact that Harley had her own room. So did that mean that her and Joker never shared the room that I was currently in? Whilst looking into Joker’s case back when I was at work, I couldn’t help but think that Harley and him were together and probably had used the bed that I was sleeping in, which was why I was a bit reluctant to use it at first, knowing the possibilities that could’ve happened under the sheets. But knowing Harley had her own room made my thoughts on the two of them change. Maybe their relationship wasn’t what everyone made it out to be? Joker did call her a ‘psychotic bitch’ during our first session.

Switching off the water, I now felt much cleaner and was eternally grateful for the shampoo and lotion. I grabbed the plum purple towel and wrapped it around my body, noticing bruises that I hadn’t seen before. The intoxicating smell of raspberries and other exotic fruits began to fill my head, and so began to walk into the bedroom where there was a dull smell of gunpowder, probably Joker’s scent. I walked around the bed, throwing my clothes onto the silk sheets, and proceeded to get dry and dressed when a voice echoed from the door.

“Well, hello.” The bastard giggled slightly, as I my head turned to face him. My heart began to thud heavily realising there was nothing to stop Joker from walking up to me and removing the towel that barely covered up my body. I gripped the fabric tightly.   
“Ever heard of privacy?” I scowled at him for showing up at this time.   
“It’s my room, doll.” He smiled at me..smug bastard.  
“Yeah, well have a bit of decency and let me get changed in peace.” He began to stroll over to the bathroom, sniffing the air like some sort of sniffer dog.  
“My God, it smells like fucking Harley in here!” He grimaced as he spoke. “Listen baby, if you had needed some shampoo, you should’ve asked me. Don’t use Harley’s, I got rid of her for a reason, don’t become a reminder of her.” I stood there, still clutching the towel close to me. Joker was pacing through the room, I could feel him stare at me at certain moments which made me feel extremely uncomfortable.  
“Listen, can I ask you something?” Joker stopped pacing after hearing my words. Either he seemed angry or annoyed yet I couldn’t tell what face he was pulling at the moment.  
“Yes?” was his response. i hesitated slightly before asking my question.  
“Um, why me?” Joker gave me a funny look, “Like, there’s lots of doctors at Arkham, I was wondering, why me?” It took a few moments before he actually answered my question, and he habitually licked his lips before speaking.  
“You and old Craney have a close relationship.”  
“Well, I wouldn’t call it a relati--’”  
“But you are close!” His voice raised slightly, Clearly he didn’t like to be interrupted. “I need Crane’s research, and you’re the perfect tool to get it to me.” Oh great, I had to fucking ask didn’t I?  
“How do you know about Crane’s research?”   
“I had a guy on the inside.”  
“Is that how you managed to escape?”  
“Ah, now that is a secret I’ll never tell.” He began to laugh again, it was scaring me because I had actually gotten used to it, this wasn’t normal so why did my mind begin to think it was?..  
“So why don’t you just use your ‘guy on the inside’ to get his research?” I remembered I was still covered in just a towel, this conversation was going on for longer than I thought. I wish he’d leave.  
“I thought about that, but you’re the key to old Jonathan’s heart and it would much easier for you to sneak in and take it.” I felt a little bit sick, “As much as I love creating chaos and mayhem, I figured a stealth operation would be much more appropriate. It also allowed me to take this beautiful woman to my home.” Joker eyed me up and down like he had done many times.  
“Stop that.”  
“Stop what?”  
“Staring at me like that”  
“Get used to the attention, toots, I have.”  
“But I’m not a psychotic murderous clown wearing a purple suit and donning a chelsea smile grin.”  
“A chelsea what?” Fuck, I had said something wrong, hadn’t I? We stared at each other for a few moments and for once Joker looked genuinely confused. “Don’t you know what that is?” He shook his head a little.  
“Those scars..it’s a chelsea grin.”  
“Explain.” His voice was surprisingly calm. I was half expecting him to hit me or something.  
“Um, well in Britain a long time ago, it...um used to be a form of punishment. S-small cuts were made at the corner’s of the victim’s mouth, a-and they were beaten until their face muscles contracted and the cuts extended resulting in a broad smile.” There was silence for a moment as Joker seemed to be taking in this new information. I thought everyone who had ever been in a history class knew about this, but clearly not, then again not everyone had my father as their teacher.  
“How did you know that?” Joker asked.  
“Oh, m-my father was a historian.”  
“Was he British?”  
“Yes.”  
“Interesting. If you’re looking for clean clothes, they’re in the wardrobe over there.” Joker turned on his heels, and proceeded to walk out of the bedroom. “Now get dressed Jones, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us!” The clown cackled down the corridor. Quickly shutting the door, I walked over to the wardrobe and swung the doors open. Looking at the hangers I noticed that my clothes were here, I was certain that these were mine, a familiar smell was returning to me, and that’s when I realised that that bastard of a clown had broken into my apartment.


	10. Scarecrow

On one hand I was slightly angry at the fact that Joker had broken into my apartment, but then on the other hand I was thankful to be wearing my own clean, comfortable clothes. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy, possibly just misunderstood and judged by the scars on his cheeks and the clothes that he wears. But now wasn’t the time to be conducting a psychiatric report, apparently I was needed for a part of the clown’s plan and it had something to do with Jonathan Crane.

I knew he was conducting research almost all the time down in that basement, but I didn’t know what it was that he was trying to create. The most I knew was that it was based on the psychology of fear, a topic that Crane had tried to include in almost every one of his lessons back at university whether it was a small fact or a huge speech on how humans react to spiders and insects, nevertheless I had always thought it to be a strange subject to become obsessed with.

That was when I mentally started facepalming over and over again. I was meant to be having dinner with Jonathan on Friday and here I was, the Joker’s little prisoner. Surely, people had noticed that I was missing by now? Although with all the chaos at the Asylum I was beginning to doubt that they had even suspected that I was missing. Then again, I’ve only been gone for about a day and half. But the longer I was here, at least someone would suspect that something isn’t right, right?

I was brought back into the harsh world of reality by the sound of someone calling my name from the other side of the door. Whilst floating around amongst my dizzy thoughts, I had totally forgotten that this place was actually real and that I was in fact lying down on Joker’s fucking bed. It always felt like a dream, and that when I woke up, I’d be back in my own bed. However this was in fact real, and the knocking on the door was beginning to give me a headache.

“What!” I called out, the knocking finally stopped.  
“Joker wants to see you!” My legs swung off the side of the bed, and I hopped off quickly. The longer I was in this room, the more tempting jumping out of the window on the other side of the room began to feel. Yet, I think Joker would be extremely pissed if I wasn’t dead other by his hand. My legs reluctantly led me to the door, and out into the corridor. I could hear voices down the very end of the hallway and so guessed that was where I needed to go.

Peeking my head around the doorframe, I could see a bunch of Joker’s henchmen gathered around on the dirty cream carpet, only a few actually sat on chairs and of course Joker himself had the entire couch to himself. He could clearly see me, and called me over.

“April, sit!” He gestured towards the sofa that he was sat on, and I silently grimaced at the fact that I had to be close to him once again. I sat myself on the end, furthest away from the clown. He just sat there and smiled, god he was always fucking smiling. It began to annoy me slightly.

“Well dollface, it’s time for your big break.” He said it loud and clear, yet I was still confused. I had to do something already? This man sure didn’t waste any time.

“What do you mean?”  
“It’s time for you to execute your little part of my plan.” All I could do was roll my eyes.  
“What do I have to do?” There was no point trying to back out or run away, Joker would just kill me in an instant, and as tempting as death increasingly sounded, I still wanted to remain alive at this moment. Anyway what’s the worst I’ll have to do.

“You’re going back to work.” Joker giggled quietly to himself.  
“That’s it?” Seemed simple enough.  
“Yep, oh but there is one little thing you’re gonna do for me.”  
“Which is?”  
“I need you to steal Crane’s research.”  
“How the fuck am I going to do that without being spotted? He spends almost all of his time working on it?!” Of course Joker was going to make it complicated.  
“That’s up to you to figure out, doll.” I crossed my arms, and slouched back into the couch like a stubborn child. “Now, my guys are gonna take you there and then, they’re gonna wait out the back until you come back with Craney’s work.” It felt like an ultimate act of betrayal to do this to Jonathan. He was a good friend, and I was fully aware of his strong feelings towards me, and I honestly thought there could be something between us but this would surely destroy everything. But at the same time, I wanted to stay on the relatively good side of Joker.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Joker immediately stood up and so did his henchmen, clearly they were more informed about the plan than I was.  
“Great! Now go get in the van, Jones.” Joker’s cackles echoed throughout the corridor as I followed his henchmen towards the black van that was parked outside. My mother had always told me to avoid strangers in vans, if only she could see me now, she would utterly kill me.

***

We pulled up outside the Asylum and my stomach began to perform somersaults, I felt like I was about to throw up. Being sat in the back of the van with a bunch of other guys and no seatbelts didn’t help the sickness either. The doors opened, and I was greeted by a flash of blinding light, it felt good to be outside again. If I had been in that room any longer I felt I would’ve gone crazy. One of the goons pushed me out, and I stumbled slightly whilst trying to keep my composure calm.

I walked at a slow pace toward the large metal doors that granted me access the to Asylum; my workplace. There seemed to be a lot less security at the doors than usual, just one guy just stood there, he seemed pretty beat up. He saw me and gave a huge smile.

“Doctor Jones! Thank God you’re here. Where have you been?” I wasn’t mentally prepared for questions, just another thing I hadn’t really thought about.  
“Oh um, well after the incident yesterday, I decided to go home and rest.”  
“Did you walk? Only ‘cause your cars still parked in the staff carpark.” Fuck, I didn’t know if I could do this. I bet I had that guilty look slapped all across my face.  
“A-um, a friend picked me up.” There, that would work...hopefully.  
“Oh alright then. Have you seen the mess inside?” I shook my head. Surely the breakout hadn’t cause that much trouble, from what I gathered only a few inmates escaped; and one of them was keeping me hostage.”Well, you best go find Doctor Crane or something, he’s been looking for you.” I nodded again, not wanting to waste time talking, I had to get this thing over and done with.

Walking inside, an overwhelming shock washed over me, as I surveyed the destruction before me. The white tiles walls had been smashed and were covered in dirt and what seemed to be dried blood. There was rubble scattered across the floor, and all the glass windows had been smashed in. There were pools of blood where people had presumably been killed and there was a faint smell of fire smoke in the air. The place was an utter wreck.

Everything seemed so quiet, and there were little to no people around. I made my way to the offices, remembering how those inmates had chased me through the door and into my office where that bastard clown smashed my head and kidnapped me. Pushing the door open, glass cracked beneath my shoes as I looked around the room. It was even worse than the entrance corridor. Desk were smashed, paper littered almost the entire floor, computers were beaten and broken and chairs had been overturned. There was one doctor whose name I didn’t know, sat at his desk rubbing his forehead and looking at the casefiles that were strewn across the floor. I made my way to my office which didn’t look as bad as the others; the door was a little scratched but the glass wasn’t damaged.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, I walked around my office, taking in the familiar smell and wishing that this was just a normal day. Some of the case files had been opened and I noticed a small dent in the middle of the desk, where Joker had smashed my head against. There was a small amount of blood surrounding the indented area. But I wasn’t here to sit around my desk all day, although I wished I was.

Leaving the office, I made my way out of the door and into the corridor, headed towards the basement. I knew what I was looking for, it was the strange canister that had caused me to hallucinate the other week. Maybe, if I gave it to Joker he’d be able to figure out what it was, because Jonathan sure wouldn’t tell me. I just had to make sure I didn’t spray myself in the face with it again, I did not want to experience those nightmares ever again.

This time I remembered my way to the basement and found the door labelled ‘Crane’. Gently pushing the door open, I scanned the room in case Jonathan was still there working on the research. As always the room was near pitch black darkness, how did he work in such light? Tiptoeing around the work tables, I saw a canister carefully placed in the same spot as where I had found it last time. I carefully picked it up and shook it, making sure that there was liquid inside of it. I put the canister inside my labcoat pocket and proceeded to walk back towards the door when something hit me in the face.

The blow knocked me to my feet and I felt disorientated. Another sharp pain knocked the breath out of me as something kicked me in the side causing me to fully lie down on the floor. What the fuck was doing this? But that was when I saw it.

It was a person, if it was a person, with a head wrapped in a stitched material and a widely sewn mouth that resembled one of those scarecrows you see in corn fields. I wanted to scream yet I could barely speak. The build of the body made the person seem familiar. Using my arms, I tried to pull my body away from the stranger, he took two steps towards me and wrapped his slender hands around my throat. Everything began to feel tight, and my legs began to thrash underneath the heavy body suffocating me. My own hands tried to pry away his, but the grip grew tighter, my head began to feel tighter and smaller and I knew that I was gonna die here unless I did something. 

I kicked the guy between the legs and immediately he threw himself backwards and released his grip on my throat, I stood up, gasping for air and trying to regain myself. The masked guy seemed similar.

“Jonathan Crane?!” I croaked.   
“There is no Crane...only Scarecrow!” The voice was eery and scratchy and the sound made me shiver all over. Patting my coat pocket, I felt the small canister safely in it’s perch. I decided to run now whilst this guy still tried to recover from my fatal hit. Turning towards the door, I felt a sharp prick in my hip, my head quickly looked back and saw that this Scarecrow guy was injecting me with something. I pushed him back and ran towards the door, pushing it open, entering the corridor and leaned against the brick wall, trying to catch my breath. What the fuck was that? Was it Jonathan?

Before I could make sense of everything, the world before me grew darker. Fuck. It was happening again. I started to walk towards the emergency exit door at the end of the corridor but felt myself begin to struggle. Shapes and shadows began to dance across the walls, and the crawling bug sensation washed over my skin again. My body just wanted to fall down and give up, but I had to reach the exit. I was almost there. Images of Scarecrow flashed before me, causing my heart to race and for me to scream each time he appeared. The images were distorted and disturbing, and wanted to consume me. The door was within arms distance. The shadows tried to keep me away. It took all my strength to open the door. to which I flopped out onto the concrete ground where the van was waiting. That was it. The shapes and shadows became bigger, and the images of Scarecrow began to laugh. The darkness began to consume me once again.


	11. Harley Quinn

Once again, I had woken up feeling like complete shit, a sensation that had been ongoing for the past several days. I prayed this wouldn’t become a regular thing, but living under the same roof as the Joker had it’s ways of sucking the very joy out of your system and replacing it with pain and depressing thoughts. The worst part was that I was actually getting used to it. Many times I told myself that this isn’t normal but the longer I was here the more my brain refused to believe that. I lived here now, and I just had to get fucking used to it.

This crappy mood was also partially due to that Scarecrow guy stabbing me with that needle, which must have been filled with the same stuff that had caused me to hallucinate just last week. I was convinced the guy in the mask was Jonathan, and if it wasn’t well then I don’t know who else would’ve been down in the lab. Unless the Warden was onto the whole research that Jonathan was working on. That did make sense actually. It didn’t seem like Jonathan’s nature to hurt somebody, especially me, I’d seen the way he had acted the last time I was hit with the gas stuff, he looked so worried. But there was a part of me that believed that it was him, however the rest of me didn’t want to believe it at all. 

There was a throbbing pain in my hip from the needle, and a constant pounding in my head presumably from where I had hit the ground after exiting the basement. That part I do remember. Pushing the basement door open and once again being greeted with Earth’s natural light before the world in my mind went dark. Luckily the van had been parked outside the door, I’m sure Scarecrow would have killed me if I had given up sooner. 

I keep thinking myself, ‘why am I helping Joker?’ The guy practically kidnapped me and then had me doing his dirty work. I could’ve walked right into that building and told someone what was going on instead of doing the clown’s bidding. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have woken up amongst the purple silk sheets of his room, if I had. In truth, I was scared, scared of getting arrested for assisting a criminal, scared of going to prison, scared of running into Scarecrow again and most of all scared of being killed by my kidnapper; Joker. Yet for some reason, I liked the adrenaline, and the rush of being scared by all these things. It actually felt somewhat liberating, walking into the Asylum, taking something that wasn’t mine and then kind of escaping plus some bruises and cuts. There was definitely something wrong with me.

I had barely been awake for ten minutes when there was a quick knock at the door. At least the people in this place had the decency to knock before entering the room, unless it was Joker at the door. Rubbing my tired eyes, my legs limply swung off the side of the bed and reached down to the carpeted floor. Standing up, I shuffled towards the door and opened it. I was greeted by a goon in a clown mask. The masks creeped me out more than Joker’s face. Speaking of which…

“Joker wants to see you.” A gruff, deep voice spoke through the mask. I could never get a damn moments peace in this place.  
“Where?”  
“In his office.” The best I could do was nod, I was still too tired to really function properly. “Now.” Gosh, Joker really was impatient, he couldn’t even wait until after breakfast to tell me how much of his plan I had probably fucked up.   
“Alright then.” I brushed past the guy and shuffled like a stroppy child towards his office.

Knocking the door, a few moments passed before a deep voice called ‘come in!” from the other side of the door. Opening it, I noticed how very office-like the room was laid out; it was very unlike Joker. I had always expected his office to just be a mess of things, with no proper order, but just like his bedroom the office was surprisingly neat. Joker was sat on the desk, swinging his legs the way a child does, staring at me the way he always did with those dark eyes of his. 

“April! You look a little rough this morning.” I took a few steps forwards, feeling a little wary of wandering too close to him. He picked up a cylindrical object; the canister I had taken from Jonathans’ lab yesterday. “I just wanted to congratulate you on retrieving this.” He bounced the object from left palm to right palm.

“Well, you did ask me to get it.”  
“I know,” he jumped down from the desk, “and you didn’t disappoint me.” He walked around me and stopped just at my right side.  
“So, does that mean I can go?”  
“Go where?” He growled in my ear.  
“Home.” His laughter rang inside my ear and all around my head.  
“But you are home!”  
“I thought you only needed me for this one thing?!”  
“Well, you thought wrong my dear,” his voice was soft again, and my body froze as one of his arms snaked their way around my hip, bringing me closer to his body; face to face. “And you are surprisingly strong for a small woman.” There wasn’t much I could do except try to prevent myself from hyperventilating and passing out again, something I seemed to do a lot more often lately. I was struggling to speak proper sentences too.  
“I don’t think I’ll be much use to you.” We were staring at each other now, and he habitually licked his lips before speaking once again.   
“That is where you’re wrong, Miss Jones.” That was when the unexpected happened. Joker crushed his lips against mine and we were kissing each other. I was staring at him in disbelief, nobody had ever kissed me before, and I hadn’t kissed anybody. Joker, a deranged criminal had stolen my first kiss. I didn’t know whether to go with it or pull back, nonetheless he was pulling me closer to him, crushing our bodies together.   
His hands gripped my hips and held tightly as he picked me up, still kissing me, and placed me on the desk he was sitting on just moments ago. Without thinking, I wrapped my arms tightly around Joker has he began nipping at my neck, something that had never happened to me either, yet it felt good. His hands gripped my thighs, then my waist, and then back to my thighs again, as he forced his lips against mine once more. He growled ever so slightly as we continued to kiss, his hand snaked upwards and gently cupped my breast before being interrupted by a knocking at the door. Joker stopped and pulled away, he looked pissed off, but then again when didn’t he looked pissed off. He turned on his heels towards the door, and I quickly hopped off the desk realising that he was about to open the door. I was pretty sure some of Joker’s makeup was present on my own face.

Swinging the door open, Joker looked just as surprised as me seeing who was stood in the doorway. There was a flash of black and red and bouncing pigtails as a body wrapped themselves around the Clown Prince of Crime.

“Mistah J! I missed you puddin’ !” First Joker, and now Harley fucking Quinn, how many more criminals were escaping. Not just from Arkham, but from Blackgate too now by the looks of it. How did a dumb blonde like her manage that? I thought she was under maximum security. Joker’s arms remained by his side as Harley clung to him tightly.

“Harley,” he said through clenched teeth, “let go.” Harley dropped her arms, and started bouncing excitedly on her feet, her pigtails bouncing again.

“Sorry puddin’, I just missed ya so much!” I sure hope she wasn’t gonna stay around, her voice alone was pissing me off already. Joker seemed to be very quiet, either that or he was just very pissed off. Harley had finally noticed that there was someone else in the room, she turned to face me, a look of disgust appeared on her pale face. I tried to discreetly rub off the Joker’s make up that was on my face, when she opened her mouth once again.

“Who’s this?” I could instantly tell that she didn’t like me. She’d probably try to kill me if she knew what had happened in the room just moments before. Joker stepped between us.

“Harley, this is our guest.”  
“Uh huh, sure.” Her heels clicked and clacked as she stepped closer towards me, towering over me. Clearly she was trying to intimidate me, however the more I looked at her the more I wanted to laugh. She leaned in close, talking in a hushed tone to me.

“Stay away from my Mistah J, and we’ll get along fine.” Harley smiled her biggest and probably fake smile and click-clacked out of the office, stroking Jokers arm as she exited. The clown followed behind her, and before I know it, I was alone in the room still trying to process what had happened in the past twenty minutes. Why hadn’t I stopped Joker from kissing me? As much as I hated to admit it, I liked it. I was definitely getting too used to the place. If he had kissed me back at the Asylum, I would’ve probably been traumatised, and yet for some reason now, I had enjoyed it. It was rough, but full of passion. Plus he had practically stolen my first kiss, and it was definitely something I wouldn’t forget.

I was also still trying to process the fact that Harley Quinn was here too. She was meant to be at Blackgate, not here, although saying that, Joker was still meant to be at Arkham. Had he planned to get her out? I don’t think so, I mean he did refer to her as a ‘psychotic bitch’ during our first meeting. Perhaps she had done it herself after hearing that Joker was out again, if she did well then that was real dedication to her ‘Mistah J’. I said the words out loud imitating her annoying voice. I wasn’t jealous I don’t think, it was only a kiss right?

Walking out of the office, I made my way down the corridor, passing Harley’s room which just so happened to be one door down from Joker’s room, which I was currently using. Her door was open, and all I saw was a flood of pink. Pink walls, pink bed sheets, pink carpet. It made me feel a little sick. Harley was sat at a chair, admiring herself in the mirror, she too wore makeup however not so bold as Joker’s. Her face was pale white with dark eyes, and blushing red lipstick. I didn’t understand her mad obsession for the Joker, it was almost insane. Rushing past, I prayed she didn’t notice me, and quickly walked into my own room and shut the door. Not thirty seconds later, did the door knock. Rubbing my forehead, I opened it, and after seeing who it was, I immediately wanted to slam it. However clearly, Harley wasn’t expecting to see me.

“Mist--,” Her face turned from cute and smiley to down-right enraged, “what are you doing in my puddin’s room?!” She place her hands on her hips like a child. I really did not want to be dealing with her right now.

“Technically, it’s my room now.”  
“No, no no no, this is Mistah J’s room.”  
“Look, if you have a problem honey, go take it up with him.”  
“Fine, but he’s gonna be so mad at you when he finds out.” A figure appeared behind Harley, and I had to try my best not to laugh. The whole thing was just too comical.

“Finds out what?” Harley’s eyes widened, realising who was standing behind her. She smiled and turned around to face Joker.  
“Hey, puddin’. I was just telling our ‘guest’ here, that she can’t be trespassing in your room.” It seemed Joker found it funny too, for he kept smiling at both me and her.  
“Actually Harley, I let her. She needed somewhere to sleep.” Harley looked pissed.  
“You should’ve kept her in the basement.” With that, she stomped off, presumably back to her room to sulk. She did seem very childish. Joker did nothing except raise his eyebrows at me, and then walk off in the same direction as Harley. I shut the door, grabbed a book from the shelf and flopped down on the bed, looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet. 

The peace was shortly interrupted, as I heard something heavy being thrown around. Joker was yelling, but I couldn’t make out what he said. Harley started crying, Joker shouted some more, and I began to understand what their ‘relationship’ was really like. She was fixated on loving him, and all he wanted was someone to help do his dirty work. If she disobeyed, then it seems things like this happened. A few moments later, the peace was restored and I flicked the book open to a random page and started reading. It seems things would be a bit more interesting now that Harley was back on the scene.


	12. Call Me Jack

For the majority of the day, I had hidden myself away in Joker’s bedroom, flicking through books and wandering from one end to the other. Harley had been here for about five hours and I had already labelled her a massive bitch. It was hard to believe that she was actually a psychiatrist like me once, she sure didn’t act like one, in fact she acted more like a teenage girl, her behaviour was even worse around the clown. 

By now, it was late afternoon and I was bored. There was nothing else going on, and there had been no more visitors. For once, the place seemed quiet, and it was eerily strange. Since Joker kicked off in Harley’s room earlier, the only noise I had heard was Quinn’s heels clicking on the ground passing the room every once in a while. As long as she was walking around, I was staying here. It seemed childish, but I just couldn’t stand her at all.

I had tried pushing away the constant reminder that Joker had kissed me. My first kiss too. And I had liked it. What has happened to me? A week ago, I was a respected psychiatrist, then a clown kidnapped me and suddenly we’re making out and I’m beginning to enjoy a somewhat criminal lifestyle. As much as I hated to admit it, I was becoming more like Harley, apart from the crazy infatuation with Joker. What I mean, is that we once both worked at the same place, same job and now we were both involved with the same character. It’s ironic really, I remember saying how Joker would never break me like he did Harley, but I think his influence is seeping through the cracks in my fragile mind. 

My stomach had been turning knots for ages, hiding from Harley meant that I couldn’t venture down to the kitchen, which sucked because I had been craving bacon since I woke up this morning. However I wasn’t ready to face her yet, if I did I might just hit her, and as much as Joker seemed to hate her, I don’t think she would hesitate to hit back. Speaking of the harlequin bitch, I heard her walk past for about the millionth time, and slam her bedroom door shut behind her. I couldn’t fight the pain any longer, the kitchen was practically calling my name, I was probably delirious right now.

Tiptoeing my way to the kitchen to avoid disturbing Harley, I began pulling out a loaf of bread and some bacon as quickly as I could. I wanted to get back to my room, before she left hers again. A familiar voice started me and caused me to drop the loaf of bread I had been holding.

“Someone’s hungry.” The clown giggled a little. Why did he find everything so funny? Stupid question, that was why they called him the Joker.

“Why, did you want some?” Please say no, I want all this bacon to myself. I’m practically starving here.  
“I want you actually.” Hugging the bread that I had dropped, I noticed that he was smirking. Turns out the clown hadn’t forgotten our kiss either.

“Funny.” I threw the bacon on the pan, fixated on watching it sizzle and cook. The atmosphere just rose to a new level of awkward. My kidnapper had passionately kissed me, how much more awkward could things get. He rose from the sofa, silently walking and placing himself behind me. Why did he always have to do that?

“Come on, tell me you liked it.” Everytime he spoke, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up even higher. Although I couldn’t deny, the kiss was pretty good, but I wasn’t ready to fully admit it yet.

“What about Harley?”  
“Why, scared she’ll find out?” I carried on cooking the bacon.   
“No.” That was a big fat lie. If Harley found out, she’d skin me alive.  
“You know doll, you’re pretty attractive when you cook.” Joker placed his hands on my hips.  
“Why did you kiss me?” His hands dropped, but he did not move from his position. I flipped the bacon over.  
“Why? Isn’t it obvious?”  
“No, not really.”  
“Hmm, how can I explain it? I don’t know, dollface, you just make me want you.” His hands snaked their way to my hips once again. His touch made my skin tingle a little.  
“I didn’t know I had that effect on men.”  
“Mmm, ever since you hit me back in that little cell at Arkham, I have become so interested in you.”  
“You were suffocating me, what else was I meant to do?!”  
“Well, I’ll be honest, I expected you to just give up and die in my arms. But you fought back, I like that.” The bacon was starting to burn slightly.  
“So you decided to keep me?”  
“Exactly.”  
“So I’m just a plaything to you, like Harley?!”  
“No, no no no, you are nothing like her.”  
“So what am I?” Joker said nothing, it was very unlike him to stay silent. “Look, I really don’t know what you want with me. You stole my first kiss, and I don’t even know your real name. You kidnap me, and expect me to be okay with everything!” I threw the cooked bacon onto the bread and angrily picked up the plate. I hadn’t been this upset for a while. I brushed past the clown and proceeded to storm out of the kitchen when a voice echoed behind me.

“April!” I stopped and turned my head to face Joker. “Call me Jack.” He tried to smile, but it was clear that it was difficult for him to share things about his true self with anyone. Although I doubted Harley knew his real name, so I began to feel less angry right now. I smiled back, and walked back to my room, hoping Harley hadn’t left hers.

My wishes hadn’t come true, for as I made my way to the top of the stairs, I bumped straight into Quinn. We stared at each other for a few moments in an imaginary deathly staring contest, before she opened her mouth.

“April.”  
“Harley” I started to walk past her, when she called out to me.  
“Wait!”  
“What?”  
“I need your help.”  
“Why?”  
“Well, why else are you around?” She had a point actually. What other reason was I here other than to help the criminals of Gotham.  
“Go on.” She smiled, and tilted her head side to side, making her pigtails bounce.  
“Okay, well I need to visit an old friend, but I’m too scared to go alone.”  
“Are you serious?!”  
“Of course.”  
“Why don’t you ask your ‘puddin’?”  
“Puddin’s busy, you’re not.” This girl did not give up. But fuck it, what else did I have going on?  
“Fine, I’ll go with you.”  
“Yay! Thanks April. Now get ready, we’ll be going soon!”  
“We’re going today?”  
“Well yeah. Like I say ‘ there’s no time like the present!” I’m pretty sure that was someone else’s quote, not hers. Also I already began to regret saying yes, talking to her for five minutes annoyed the hell out of,me, I don’t know how I’ll cope being around her for a several hours. I walked past her, and back to my room, to eat my bacon sandwich in peace. 

***

Sure enough, about an hour later Harley was hollering at me from the door. I had been hoping that she had forgotten about going out, but unfortunately she did not, by the looks of it. 

“April, I know you’re in there!” Did she have to speak in that annoying tone? I put down the Harry Potter book that I had found on the small bookshelf that morning. It had surprised me that Joker had such books, there was a hilarious image in my mind of the Joker sat down in a chair reading books by the fire. If he ever started doing that, then I really would label him crazy.Nonetheless, Harley was still waiting for me.

I opened the door and started following her out of the building. This was the first time I had actually left of my own accord; or rather Harley’s. She still hadn’t told me where we were going and I’m pretty sure she was starting to get a little lost herself. I wonder if Joker even knew that we had gone out. He probably didn’t, Harley may have been too scared to tell him. If we got into trouble for this, I know who to blame.

“Harley, do you even know where we’re going?” It was starting to get dark, and I had no idea how long we had been walking around the streets of Gotham. We had ran across roads and skulked around alleyways and I still had no clue where it was we were supposed to be. It was getting colder, and I had stupidly forgotten to bring my jacket. I couldn’t stop myself from shivering, and it seems the same was happening to Harley, who turned around to answer my question.

“Of course I do, what do you think I am..stupid?!” That wouldn’t surprise me. She seemed to be getting increasingly annoyed the more we walked and walked and walked.

“Well, where are we meant to be going?”   
“A block of apartments, where Arkham City is gonna be?”  
“You mean the area that’s always surrounded by cats?”  
“Yes! Do you know it?”  
“I thought everyone did, I used to pass it on my way to work.”  
“Hurry up and lead the way then! I’m getting cold over here!” Oh, the poor princess is cold, it’s not like I’m freezing my ass off either. However I did take the lead, dragging Harley down this street and that alley, trying to remember the way to the block of apartments. That part of town had always caught my curiosity each morning on my way to work. There were cats everywhere, I had no idea Gotham had that many strays, and why hadn’t anyone done anything about it?

At last we stood outside the building, I felt relieved as Harley shut up with her whining and began to jump up and down excitedly. Although I didn’t know which was worse. She grabbed my wrist tightly and dragged me inside, pulling me up the flight of stairs, I had lost count of how many steps we had gone up. It seemed like we were going to the top floor, but we didn’t stop there. As soon as we had made it up the stairs, she pulled me down a corridor which was dimly lit and slightly unkept. We stood outside a door that had various claw marks around the door frame and on the door itself, I imagined a giant cat living inside the apartment which made me giggle slightly.

Harley didn’t even knock, and instead just walked right in like the owned place. I followed behind, hoping there wasn’t a resident inside ready to murder us for trespassing. Quinn walked around the small apartment seemingly looking for something.

“Selina!” She called out. Was that the woman who owned the place? It had to be, I knew Harley was slightly mad, but I doubt she would drag me around half of Gotham just to shout random names in a random apartment overtaken by cats.

Then, there was a strange feeling around my ankles. Please tell me this woman didn’t have a pet snake, I hated snakes. I looked down and noticed a plant wrapping itself tightly around both my ankles. The plant jerked upwards, and I found myself hanging upside down. I’m pretty sure plants didn’t do that by themselves. I looked around and noticed Harley in the same position, although she didn’t look scared at all, she was in fact smiling. Okay, she was definitely crazy. And plants shouldn’t be doing this.


	13. Mad Thoughts

Joker’s POV:

There were about a billion things on my mind at this moment and it was taking all of my mental strength to pinpoint it to just one of them. Her. Normally my good little brain would be busy devising up destructive ways in which I could rob a bank or a creative way to blow up a hospital. Oh, how much fun I had getting rid of the last one. All it took was a few drums of gasoline and the entire population of Gotham went absolutely nuts. It was a beautiful show. Yet for some reason, I was totally fixated on her lately. It wasn’t love. The Joker was incapable of love.

“But Jack can feel love.” Hey, brain do you mind shutting the fuck up? Jack doesn’t exist anymore.

“Deep down, you’re still Jack Napier.” Didn’t I just tell you to shut up?! I’m making a mental reminder to shoot my dope dealer between the eyes next week. These narcotics are making me stranger than usual. But I wasn’t crazy. It’s the rest of the world that’s crazy, I’m just one of the very small few who actually realise what’s wrong with the world.

Rules. Everyone all over the planet quietly abide by rules set by a higher authority who claim that ‘they know what’s best’. They believe they’re protected. Until someone, like me, who has no rules decided to murder and steal, well then everyone panics and loses their minds. Since when did murder become bad? 

These stupid and small-minded people also believe that a man who dresses like a bat will rid the world of the so-called criminal scum. Can you believe that people actually call him a saviour? It’s fucking ridiculous. But the Batman has rules too, well just one actually. And, it’s that very rule that stops him from taking all of us ‘bad ‘guys’ out for good. It’s already been proven by moi twice that throwing us all in Arkham doesn’t work, we just crawl back into Gotham’s underworld eventually. If Batman truly wanted justice, he would have to break his one little rule and I’d love to be there when he does.

And now I’m thinking of her again. Even as I’m trying to plot pure evil against the Batman, she just pops right back up there. The more I thought of her, the more Jack tried to crawl right back to the surface on my mind, and lately I was finding it harder to suppress him. I was feeling things that I hadn’t felt for a long, long time. Too long in fact. For years, it’s been all about the chaos and the anarchy and the big ‘fuck you’ to the natural order of things. But that woman was making me soft, making me become Jack again and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not.

What interested me the most was that now she didn’t seem afraid of me. Sure, I’ve made her feel uneasy at times, but that generally happens with every person that I come into contact with. It’s the scars and the make up, but it’s the kind of thing I was going for when Joker was born. Fuck, even Harley’s still terrified me, but that’s good, I want her to be afraid of me. But she..I have no fucking idea how she does it. She hit me back, for Christ’s sake, no one has ever dared that apart from the Batman. She certainly was intriguing, and sexy. Especially when she questioned things. I do love a girl who can think for herself. No, stop it, Joker doesn’t feel love, ever. Jack was making too many appearances lately. But it was getting even harder fighting those emotions.

Fuck emotions. Batman has emotions and it makes him weak. It’s the thing that stops him from breaking his one rule. It’s a stupid rule at that. Batman is fucking stupid. My head was hurting now, I’ve never thought so much in probably my entire life. Why did April have to exist? Why did Harley have to come back? Speaking of which, it still puzzled me how she broke out of Blackgate, I didn’t think she was smart enough. And it was quite funny watching her and April throw dagger eyes at one another. I was just waiting for one of them to start the bitchy comments and eventually the bitch slaps. 

Then I remembered that I hadn’t seen either of them since their tense first meeting this morning in the office. Harley hadn’t come by to annoy me, and April hadn’t bombarded me with a mountain-worth of questions. Odd. Maybe they had killed each other already, too intense, maybe one of them had killed the other, but I swear if Harley came back unscathed I’d probably kill her myself. Actually, I might do that anyway, sounds fun.

I walked out of my office, and up the flight of stairs leading to both my bedroom and Harley’s. When Quinn had asked me if we could share a room last year, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. It still surprised me, that she still had this intense love thing going on for me. Checking my room first, I noticed that the bed was made, probably by April, and that there was an awful smell of Harley in there. Then I checked her room, which by the way was carrying too much pink. The entire room made me wanna upchuck on the fluffy pink carpet. There was a note on the dresser with Harley’s scribbled writing displayed across it.

‘Gone out for a while puddin’. I took April with me. Love Harley xoxoxo.’

Goddammit, Harley had gone to visit that cat thief. I had disliked that woman ever since she stole some money from me a while ago. Did that woman ever own anything that was actually hers? Pretty ironic considering I’ve stolen my fairshare of valuable items, but that’s not the the point. The point is, the woman stole from me, and I specifically told Harley to never visit her. To make matter worse, she had taken April with her. Harley doesn’t even know her way around Gotham. Why was it always up to me to sort out her fucking messes.


	14. Familiar Faces

The longer I hung upside down, the more blood rushed to my head and it was starting to make me feel dizzy. Harley hadn’t shut up for the past ten minutes, instead she had been screaming ‘Red!’ over and over again. Clearly this ‘Red’ person wasn’t here otherwise she would’ve made an appearance by now. Why did I ever agree to this? I didn’t even like Harley. Okay, well maybe I was being a little harsh, sure she was annoying, but it seemed all she ever tried to do was impress Joker...Jack.

It still puzzled me as to why Harley wasn’t afraid of what was happening to us right now. In fact, she was enjoying herself, smiling and laughing as if everything was normal. But I’ve been telling myself too many times that this isn’t normal. It’s not normal for a bunch of plants to be holding humans hostage. It’s not normal to be living with a man who dresses like a clown and kidnaps psychiatrists. And yet, I haven’t attempted to leave and run. Why did I stay? At first, I was fearful that if I maybe stepped out of line, then that would be the end for me. But now, I think that there’s a different reason and it was a reason that I wasn’t fully ready to accept. Sure Joker..Jack had kissed me, but that didn’t mean he felt anything for me. It was probably just a ‘heat of the moment’ thing. 

As for me, I don’t know what I felt. My mind was all one big blurry mess. At first I thought I liked Jonathan with his kind and compassionate mannerism. But now, I think my heart was swaying more towards Jack, he was intriguing and complicated, but underneath all that hardened and perfected facade, I think there was a man inside of him just wanting to feel what the rest of us felt. I saw that this morning when he looked at me and told me his name. I believed it because his face told the truth. It was as if, for a moment, the Joker disappeared, and Jack made himself known to me. However, I didn’t want to fully believe these emotions for the time being purely because Jack was still an unsteady character and it was clear that his mind was still clouded. He could switch his decisions at anytime, probably leaving my own heart crushed and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to deal with that just yet.

To make things worse, I was still hanging upside down in an apartment that didn’t belong to me, hung next to a very annoying girl. Looking around, I studied the apartment from my slightly obstructed view. From what I could see, the apartment was neat and mostly well kept, if not for a few dust marks and claw indentations here and there. The room smelt feminine, so a female definitely lived here. There were a lot of plants potted along windowsills and the coffee table in the middle of the room. The mass amount of plants reminded me of someone and it was bugging me because I couldn’t remember who exactly. The room was dimly lit with only a few small lamps turned on, and there was a slight breeze; looks like someone left the window open. It was a small apartment with what looked like two bedroom and an even smaller kitchen. It was raining outside now, so there was a damp smell seeping in through the window.

A second later there was a dark figure crouched on the outside windowsill of the open window. It was a female figure and she was staring at me with dark eyes. She appeared to have cat ears although I doubt they were real; probably part of a costume or something. As she stepped inside the apartment, her small and slender frame straightened out and she began to walk around the plants that were holding Harley and I hostage. The female was wearing a tight black leather costume and there was a black whip hooked into her belt. She saw Harley and smiled.

“I thought you weren’t allowed to see me anymore, Harley?”

“Mistah J, doesn’t know, Selina!” I knew she hadn’t told him. There was probably going to be hell to pay when he finds out. In fact, he’s probably already noticed that the both of us were gone. I’m betting that he’s going to be extremely pissed. This Selina person spoke once more.

“I see you brought a friend.”

“Oh yeah, this is April. Mistah J kinda kidnapped her, but we’re sort of friends now. She helped find your apartment.” I instantly felt terrible for mentally calling her a bitch. After the hostility we had shown each other in the beginning, she now considered me a friend and I think it’s only right if I started doing the same. Selina dropped to the nearby couch and curled up in a small spot.

“Well, you’re gonna have to wait until Red comes back. The plants only listen to her.”

“Do you know when she’ll be back?” I asked. It was the first time I had spoken to her.

“She should be here soon. She prefers to take the stairs.” Then there was almost complete silence. Selina began to inspect her nails which were quite long and shaped into menacingly sharp claws. Harley was humming a tune and I was becoming increasingly dizzy from held upside down for what seemed like an eternity. Soon enough, the apartment door swung open and a red headed woman soaked from the rain walked inside. I knew I recognised her.

“Pamela?!” She stopped and focused her gaze upon me. Her hair was not large or bushy like it usually was, the rain had caused it to go flat and limp. She was no longer wearing the Arkham Asylum jumpsuit and instead wore little to no clothes in fact apart from a jacket and some ivy vines covering up the most important parts of her body. Her skin was still green, and but the shade was much more rich and vibrant compared to the dull and pale shade back when we had our meetings at Arkham.

“Doctor Jones?!” What are you doing here?” I wasn’t sure whether she was pleased to see me or not.  
“Ask her.” I tilted my head in Harley’s direction. Pamela walked over to the plant that was currently squeezing the life out of me and began to gently stroke it. She leaned in closer and began whispering to it. The plants grip on my body loosened until I eventually fell to the hard floor surface with a not so gentle thud. A second thud followed, so I guess that was Harley.

“Ivy! I can’t believe you’re back!” Quinn said excitedly.

“I could say the same to you, Harls.” Both girls embraced each other in a hug, holding tightly before eventually letting go.

“Where’s my hug?” Selina inquired. Harley ran over to the couch and practically jumped on her, giving her a long embrace. Harley really did act like a child sometimes but it was part of her nature and no one could change that. I was still sat on the floor, awkwardly watching as all three girls were somewhat reunited. Pamela then looked at me, holding her arms up. Standing up and still feeling slightly dizzy from finally standing up the right way, I held my own arms out and hugged Pamela. It seemed unprofessional but then I was forgetting that she was technically not my patient anymore and that both of us weren’t at Arkham. We smiled and let go, Harley had stopped suffocating Selina with her hugs and instead sprawled out across the couch.

“So how do you know Ivy, April?” For a moment I had forgotten Pam’s infamous nickname which had caused me to stutter like an idiot with the first few words of my next sentence.

“Oh um w-well, we uh, we met at Arkham Asylum.”

“You were a patient too?”

“Doctor actually.” Pamela then joined in the conversation.

“April was my doctor, we became quite good friends eventually.” I nodded and smiled at Pam, not really knowing what else to say. Selina seemed to be full of questions however.

“Harley said you were kidnapped by Joker, is that right?” Pamela then left to go make tea for everyone. I was left to answer the questions alone.

“Yes. He took me from my office about a week ago.”

“Why would he do that?”

“He said that I was needed as part of his plan, although I’m not sure why.” That was in fact partly a lie. I had already completed my part of the plan, but Selina didn’t have to know that…Not yet at least.

“Hmm, Joker must be planning something big. I mean it’s the second time he’s escaped from Arkham and this time he’s kidnapped a doctor.” Again, I nodded in agreement. “Batman needs to know.” Shit, Jack would go absolutely nuts if he found out that the Batman knew that he was up to something. I’m not exactly sticking up for Jac here, but I don’t fancy being killed because Selina blabbed to the masked vigilante. Luckily Harley joined in.

“Selina, you can’t!”

“Why not, Harls?”

“Cause’ if Mistah J found out, then he’d probably kill me! And April, probably.” Thank you Harley for confirming my imminent probable death.

“Look, honey, I don’t even know why you went back to him. He’s never treated you good.” Harley suddenly became all defensive.

“But I love him, Selina! And one day...we’re gonna get married!”

“Oh get over yourself, Harls, you know he doesn’t love you back.”

“How dare you say something like that!” Harley now had tears in her eyes and I was sure she was both angry and upset to how true Selina’s words were, however she was refusing to believe any of it. “Mistah J loves me!”

“Of course he does, that’s why you always come running to Red and I everytime he hit you.” My own heart sunk a little. I knew he had a temper but I didn’t think he actually hit Harley. What kind of man was I falling in love with?

Pamela came back into the living room carrying a tray with four cups placed on the surface. There was a teapot and a small bowl of sugar too.

“Harley, you know that guy isn’t good for you,” she said, placing the tray down silently on the coffee table. Three of us leaned over to grab a mug of tea, except Harley who had slouched back into the couch, pouting like a small child does when they don’t get their own way.

“Come on, you know it’s true.” Selina stated. Harley shook her head and continued pouting. How did she manage to become a psychiatrist? Selina shook her head and began sipping her tea of mug. There was silence for a while, no one knew what else to say and instead we all drank our cups of tea. The rain was still pounding hard against the building, and even though there was an awkward feeling between the four of us, personally it felt great to be in the presence of female company for the first time in what seemed like forever. Lately, I had been in the company of mostly men, which seems perfect for most women, however I tend to get extremely nervous around them, especially Jack…

***

It was extremely late into the night by now. Harley had fallen asleep on the couch with her head practically hanging off the edge. Selina and Pam were watching tv, and I was still sat on the floor nursing my fourth cup of tea. What can I say, I like tea. There hadn’t been much conversation since the girls had tried to tell Harley to stop lusting after Joker. Tiredness was starting to overwhelm me and I found myself yawning every five minutes. Pamela had noticed my yawns too.

“You getting tired, honey?” 

“Just a little bit.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why haven’t you run yet?”

“What?”

“Joker. You could be halfway across the city by now, and yet you’re still here waiting to go back just like Harley.”

“I’m not like Harley.”

“I know that. I’m just asking why, April.”

“I don’t know. I’m scared, maybe?”

“So you should be. Joker ain’t a nice character as you probably already figured out. Harley seems to disagree however.”

“He’s not that bad..” Selina had apparently been listening to the conversation, for she started laughing at what I had just said. 

“Darling, have you been hit on the head?” she said.

“No. At least I don’t think I have.” I knew Jack was violent, but I had seen a side of him that no one else had seen. I still hadn’t had the chance to have a real conversation with him, but I felt I knew him a little better than the other three women in the room. Selina continued.

“Look, he kills people for fun, he abuses Harley, and he kidnapped you. And you’re saying ‘he’s not that bad’?!” I looked down and stared at my mug. All of the above was true, he did kill people whenever he felt like it, and as much as I didn’t want to believe it, he did abuse Harley. “You like him, don’t you?”

“No!” I protested, even though that was a slight lie.

“Honey, just to give you a heads up. Joker don’t feel love, He’s a heartless criminal who gets a kick out of almost anything. Have you seen what he’s done to Harley’s mind? I’d hate to see the same happen to you.” I looked up and nodded to Selina who had now finished her rant about Jack. It was Pam’s turn to speak.

“Hey, April. If you don’t feel like going back, you can stay with us.”

“She can?” Selina quickly turned to Pam.

“Yes she can. Both her and Harley are welcome anytime. Any friend is.” Pam said, switching her view from Selina, to me, then to Harley and back to Selina. 

“Yeah, sure.” Selina then continued to watch the tv.

“Thanks Pam.” She nodded at me, and gave a small wink. It was a nice feeling knowing that I had some friends in this new world I had been thrown into. I guess you could say, I was part of the criminal underworld. Three of them were my friends, and the fourth had kissed me, and part of me wanted more. Was I starting to become like them? A criminal? I had given up trying to define what was normal anymore. Life has now taught me that nothing is normal and that’s okay. In some way, I’m glad that Jack had kidnapped me. If he hadn’t then I wouldn’t have gotten my first kiss, or met three girls who I could say were my friends. Actually the first part was a lie, if I was still continuing my ‘normal’ life, I would’ve probably kissed Jonathan. I wonder what had happened to him after the asylum outbreak. I still didn’t know whether he was the Scarecrow character or not.

I finally admitted defeat and laid down on the carpet floor. I wasn’t bothered about the lack of pillows or blankets, I felt so tired that the floor actually felt comfortable. Having no idea how late it was, I closed my eyes, waiting to fall into the sweet serenity of sleep. The noise from the television began to fade, as I fell deeper and deeper into sleep.


	15. Stay With Me?

The pounding of the rain had finally ceased and the birds of the early morning began to sing. My eyes opened yet they still felt sleepy and my eyelids felt heavy still. I was greeted with rays of the morning sun seeping in through the windows and a cold air swept around me from a near open window. Stretching out, my back cracked and felt stiff from the hard floor; for one I missed the luxurious of waking up in Jack’s four poster bed. The scent of coffee wafted in through the air, hitting my nose instantly, the smell alone was enough to wake me up, yet I remained close to the ground, wanting to take full advantage of the fact that for once I had awoken amongst those I called friends, instead of waking up in a bed that wasn’t even my own,

Sitting up, my back stiffened ever so slightly and I started to regret sleeping on the floor. Even so, I looked around to see that Harley was still sound asleep and sprawled out across the couch, cocooned inside a knitted blanket. Her pigtails were messy and her own white makeup was smeared revealing a patch of peachy skin that was her own. Selina and Ivy were no longer seated on the other couch, where I last saw them last night. I suspected that one of them was in the kitchen creating the source of the coffee scent.

I noticed that a blanket had been placed over me, presumably whilst I was asleep and I appreciated the thoughtful gesture made by my new friends. Stumbling whilst standing up, I sleepily shuffled my feet towards the kitchen, the scent of coffee becoming stronger. I held onto the blanket tightly for there was still a chill amongst the air. A wide yawn escaped my lips however my mind felt more rested than it has been in the past few days. Currently, I did not know what the time was but I estimated it to be around 8am, it felt like that time of morning. The time back in my ‘previous’ life where I’d awake to the harsh sound of my alarm clock, battling with myself trying to get ready in time for work.

Work, I hadn’t been back to the asylum in over a week but it felt so much longer. Being here, time felt to go incredibly slower. At first, it felt like torture, but just like the abnormality of everything that has happened to me lately, I had gotten used to it. I wonder if people were looking for me? A part of me hoped so, but the rest of me was starting to like this new kind of lifestyle, it felt wrong but somehow right too. I was just estimating the time it took before I turned into Harley and Selina and Pam. That estimated time was becoming shorter and shorter.

Shuffling into the kitchen, I bumped into Pam who had been the one to make the coffee. The scent overwhelmed my nose, but I had always loved the smell. Sometimes I used to sit in Starbucks purely because I loved being surrounded by the constant coffee bean smell. She appeared to be cooking bacon and eggs, and there were piles of toast already buttered and cut into triangles.  
“Wow.” I said, slurring the end of my word, sounding like a stupid drunk. Pamela noticed me and smiled.

“You’re up early too, huh?” She said in a soft voice.

“Where’s Selina?” I asked.

“She likes to start her work early. Did she leave the window open?”

“Yeah.”

“I always tell her to close the window when she leaves. Otherwise there’s a draft that comes through the apartment.”

“I noticed.” Pam smiled, and turned to pour hot coffee into one of the mugs she had put on the counter. She then handed the mug to me, which I nursed between my cold hands. I muttered a small ‘thanks’ to which she nodded and returned her focus to cooking.

“Hey Pam,” still focused on cooking the bacon, she nodded to indicate that she was listening, “did you really mean what you said last night?”

“About staying here?” Taking the pan off of the stove, she placed all the food onto three plates. One less because Selina wasn’t here. I nodded at her words.

“Of course you can stay. You helped me with my problems, now I’ll help you with yours. That’s what friends are for.”

“Thank you.”I dropped the blanket and put my arms around Pam, nearly spilling the hot coffee over her. She deserved a hug, she was a kind and thoughtful person. Back at Arkham during our sessions, i had really learnt to respect her. She was a good friend, the best I had ever had really and I was grateful to be here with her.

“Time to wake Harley up. She’s been sleeping like a log for hours.” Pam said. Both of us juggled plates topped with food and cups filled to the brim with coffee. Setting the breakfast down on the table, I decided to attempt to wake Harley from her deep slumber.

“Harley?” I whispered, going with the quiet approach in order to wake her gently. Tapping her shoulder and nudging her didn’t seem to work. I stood up and took the blanket away, exposing her to the chilly air, and she was the one closest to the window. She finally began to stir.

“Harley!” I raised my voice slightly. Although her eyes were still shut, she answered back.

“What do ya want?!”

“It’s time for breakfast, come on, get up!”

“But, it’s cold.” Harley complained.

“Blame Selina, now come get breakfast.”

“Is there bacon?”

“Yes, there is bacon.” Harley quickly shot up from the couch, shaking off the tired feeling and darting towards the table. She began loading her plate with as much bacon as she could. Pam wandered over next to Harley.

“Woah Harls, leave some for us.” Pam began placing food on her own plate, mainly toast. Harley ceased her question for bacon and left all but three slices of bacon for me. The three of us sat together quietly and ate breakfast, barely speaking a word. That was until Harley had conquered her mountain of bacon.

“Thanks, Red. That was awesome.” Pam nodded whilst sipping her second cup of coffee. I was currently on my third, and Harley had had none because she didn’t like it. She slipped into the kitchen to go and make some tea, leaving Pam and I to chat once again.

“It’s good to see you, Doctor.” Pam was the first to break the silence.

“It’s good to see you too, Pam.” She drained the last of her coffee in one swift gulp.

“I bet you’re wondering why I’m not at Arkham.” It was true, I had wondered how she was here and not there. Not even for a second since being kidnapped from that place did I ever expect to bump into her again. I had missed her thought, she was the only female I could have a decent and civilised conversation without once getting bored.

“Go on, tell me.” Pamela cleared her throat. I was in for a long speech.

“Well, it was the same day Joker escaped. I woke up on that day as normal, but everything seemed different...quieter.”

“I noticed that too.”

“Anyway, I thought nothing of it and carried on with the day. During the afternoon, I decided to take a nap; taking advantage of the peace and quiet. I was woken up by the sound of the alarm and as I sat up in bed, the door to my cell randomly opened. It became mayhem, inmates were dashing past my cell and I walked to the door to see what was going on. There were no guards, not even the fat one who always gave me weird looks whenever he walked past. I took this opportunity to run and escape myself, I felt bad but I remembered that I would never get a chance like this again. After escaping the building, I came here to find Selina and I’ve been here ever since.” To be honest, if I were in her shoes I would’ve escaped too.

“Wow. When I heard the alarm, I went to hide in my office, but Joker was there waiting for me.” Harley had come back into the room, happy that she finally had her cup of tea. She ignored us and instead flopped down on the couch, switching on the tv clearly not interested in conversation. Pam leaned in closer to me and spoke in a hushed tone so that Harley would not hear.

“What does he want with you anyway?” She said.

“I don’t know, but Pam can you keep a secret.” I whispered.

“For you, sure.”

“Alright, well the other day something happened between Joker and I,” my voice became gradually quieter, terrified of Harley finding out, “we kissed.” I mouthed. Pam’s eyes widened and she clapped her hands to her mouth.

“Are you serious?!” she mouthed back, clearly aware of how Harley would react if she heard this conversation right now. I nodded in response to her question.

“Pamela, I don’t know what to do.” My friend sat beside me, clearly thinking long and hard.

“We won’t do anything alright. You’ll stay here, away from him and we never mentioned this to Harley. Got it?” I nodded and Pam nodded back. On one hand, it felt incredibly good getting this secret off my chest, but on the other hand I feel I made a mistake telling someone about Jack and I’s activities. He might actually murder me if he knew that Pam knew. Then again, he’s going to murder me anyway for being here with Harley. My life was becoming increasingly complicated and just a tad stressful. I was slowly falling in love with a psychotic clown, and I was currently sat in a room with a girl who would most probably end my life if she found out that I had kissed him. Well, technically he had kissed me, but I didn’t pull away, I let it happen and I enjoyed it. Did you hear that brain? I enjoyed kissing the Joker...Jack. There, I had finally admitted, and there was no going back now. I was in the thick of it, you could say.

Out of nowhere, a figure jumped through the open window. It was Selina, still wearing her suit. Apparently, she was known as Catwoman in the criminal underworld, and she was a thief. She never killed, just like Batman and Pam had also told me that they had a thing going on. Who knew the Batman would be having some secret fling with a cat thief. I learnt a lot about the world of Gotham’s criminals and found that there were many I had to watch out for, especially now I had been associated with Joker...Jack. The one that scared me the most was a guy that went by the name Two Face. He was burnt in an accident caused by Jack, but only half of his body suffered burns leaving the other half completely fine. He used his lucky coin to make his own luck and for deciding if his victims would live or die. Scary. Selina looked out of breath and worried as she ran over to Pam. She kept looking around the room, paranoid about something.

“Ivy, there’s someone coming up the stairs.” She said. Harley broke her gaze from the tv and also began listening to the current conversation.

“Selina, stop being so paranoid, there are other people living in this building.” Pam turned to walked into the kitchen, but Selina grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the conversation.

“No, no Ives, it’s him. He’s coming for these two.” Pam’s face became serious. When Selina said him, the three of us knew exactly which person she was talking about. Jack had definitely found out that Harley and I were gone. Like I had said before, there was going to be hell to pay for this. But before any of us could really devise a strategic plan, there was a loud echoing knock at the door. I’m pretty sure everyone could hear the sound of my heart beating crazily fast. I wasn’t ready to die.

“Hellooooo” That voice could only belong to one person, and one person only. The four of us looked at each other and then back at the door, all frozen to the spot. Then something thumped against the door, and again and again. He was gonna tear the door down. Selina spoke in a whisper.

“Harley!” Quinn focused her gaze on Selina, “go hide in the bedroom, now!” Harley nodded and dashed into one of the two rooms. I stayed exactly where I was standing. Joker knew we were here so what was the point of hiding, death seemed inevitable anyway so why prolong it by hiding? The door fell from it’s hinges and greeted the ground with a mighty crash. Stood in the doorway was Joker, who looked extremely pissed off and was surrounded by half a dozen henchmen. He took one step forward and immediately two of goons stepped inside and trained their guns on Selina and Pam, they didn’t deserve this. Joker looked at me and pointed.

“Found one.” He said. His voice sounded different, instead of soft as it were before, he sounded harsh and militant, “go find the other.” He spoke to the four goons who had stayed close to him. They nodded and began searching the apartment. This was worse than the time I was kidnapped, mainly because this time there was a possibility that my friends could get hurt. Joker walked over to me, still staring at me with cold eyes. His mood towards me had changed.  
“Now,” he started, standing extremely close to me, “I don’t remember giving you permission to leave.” I couldn’t move, my body was too scared to move even a tiny bit. My breathing was slightly erratic and I was having difficulty controlling it. Joker reached his gloved hand out and touched my face, tucking my hair behind my ear. His face seemed to become soft for a moment, but returned to it’s harsh normality soon after we both heard Harley’s screams from the bedroom. We both turned our heads and saw one of the goons dragging Harley out of the room.

“Let go of me!” She cried. The goon did let go, sending Harley towards the ground with a small thump. Joker had stepped away from me and was now towering above Harley.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to leave either.” He hadn’t raised his voice yet, which was a bad sign. It meant that he was enjoying all of this too much. Harley said nothing and instead quivered and shook.

“Not full of words today Harley?” He leaned over and started to gently tapped her left cheek, then right then left again, “it seems you also forgot me telling you not. to. visit. SELINA!”

By now he was shouting, which meant he was about to do something. Pam and Selina couldn’t move, two henchmen were pointing guns directly at their faces, but there were no henchmen surrounding me. It seemed Joker was focusing more on Harley. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, Joker raised his hand and clenched it into a fist. I could just stand there and watch my friend get beaten. It was as if instinct took over and before I knew it, I was dashing towards Harley who by now had covered her head with her hands, expecting the hit that never actually came. With all my strength, I pushed her out of the way and felt something hard hit my face. I had never actually been punched in the face before, so the pain was a shock. I never expected it to hurt so much. I could feel something wet trickling from my nose. Blood. Well it was too late to turn things around. Both Harley and Joker seemed shocked at the sudden turn of events. Everyone stood completely still for a few moments processing all that had happened. For once, I was first to break the silence.

“Fine.” Joker said. That was it, I was certainly dead now. Well done April, you really stuck your foot in it, just like you always do. Death as surely imminent now. Joker motioned to one of his goons who bent down and slung me over their shoulder. Joker, the henchmen and I began to make our way out of the apartment. Harley was left behind and I had no choice in the matter. I grabbed one final look at Pam and Selina, before losing sight of the apartment.

***

Surprisingly, Jack hadn’t killed me, not yet at least. I had been led to a car with blacked windows and had ended up sat in the back, squashed up against him because the largest of the henchmen had decided to sit next to me. The other three goons followed in a car behind us. No one spoke a word, not one letter or syllable until we reached the warehouse. Strangely, it felt good to be back at this place, it had begun to feel sort of like home.

We pulled up outside, and I exited the car as fast as I could. I didn’t feel like being at the end of Joker’s wrath just right now. My nose still ached and it was only now that the bleeding had stopped and all I wanted was to clean up my face and be alone for a while. I hurried inside and up the flight of stairs which led into the corridor where Joker’s room resided. I flung open the door and walked to the bathroom, switching the tap on and letting the water run for a while. I grabbed the purple towel from the rail and ran it under the cold water, eventually rubbing the blood off of my skin. My nose ached even more, and I was starting to suspect that it might be broken. Staring into the mirror, I noticed a certain clown standing in the doorway.

“I’m sorry.” I glared at him and continued washing my face. How dare he try to apologise when I’m trying to be angry.

“April.” He continued. I turned to face him.

“What?!”

“I’m trying to apologise here.”

“Since when did Joker apologise?”

“Since Jack fell in love.” I froze with the towel in my hand. Did I hear that right? I wasn’t sure.

“Say that again.” Jack became all sheepish and a little bit shy.

“I said, since Jack fell in love.” I didn’t know whether to believe it. Joker didn’t feel love...but maybe Jack did. “I’m really sorry I hit you. You know honestly this is the first time I’ve ever felt bad for hitting someone.” He raised his hand and swept back the stray hair that covered his face.

“What happened to Joker, the emotionless clown?” He stepped closer to me, our faces touching.

“He’s still there somewhere in my frenzied mind.” He wrapped his arms around me.

“Right now, I prefer Jack.” I held his face between my hands, stroking his scarred cheeks softly with my fingers.

“Stay with me?” He said quietly. There was only one way to answer his question. I leaned forward and touched his lips with my own, Jacked kissed back and held me closer. For a few moments, it felt like we were the only two people in the world. All thoughts drifted away for a few moments. Funny how love can make you overlook the bad things in a person and instead focus on all the good that they had to offer. Jack did have the ability to love, it just took a little coaxing and searching to find it.


	16. Learning the Ropes

After finally admitting that I was in love with Jack and he with I, things were starting to look up. After we kissed, he had spent twenty minutes helping me fix up my nose, constantly apologising for it. I couldn’t have stayed angry at him for long, I wasn’t that type of person. I was the type that constantly forgave people over and over again, hoping that they would change, sometimes the repercussions on that fucked me over. However in this situation, I hoped it didn’t. This was the first guy I had truly fallen in love with, as crazy as it sounds, and I kind of wanted it to last for a little while.

Jack had since returned to his office to work on some plans, he would probably be busy with that for the majority of the day, so I had to find someway of keeping myself busy. But staying in the room all day will probably drive me completely insane. I had already changed my clothes considering there were traces of blood on the ones I wore whilst at Selina’s apartment. I was going to have a great time trying to wash the stains out. Secondly I wanted to get in touch with Pam and the others, the only problem was that I had lost my phone when I had first arrived here. I might ask Jack later if I can venture out into the big wide world of Gotham to buy a new one.

I wondered how the girls were doing right now. I still felt glad that I protected Harley, but I really wanted to see how she was doing. I needed to let them know that I was okay. I was still grateful that Pam had offered to let me stay at the apartment, however I think I preferred sleeping in the four poster bed as opposed to sleeping on the floor. It was definitely a lot more comfortable, that was a sure fact. I wanted to be able to visit my new friends, the only females I had befriended in this new criminal world. Well it was new for me, anyway. But, part of my mind still wanted everything to run somewhat normally. To go out wherever and whenever I wanted, to socialise with who I wanted, to go shopping, things that I would do if I were still working and living out my life like the majority of normal people do during their lifetime.

Walking out of the door, I decided to go pester Jack about getting a new phone, as much as I didn’t want to interrupt him whilst he was busy scheming, the boredom was starting to irritate me already. Pacing the room all day was becoming tiresome and the determination to roam the streets of Gotham again had taken over. Standing outside the office, my hand cautiously hovered over the door before finally knocking. Three knocks later and an irritated ‘what?!’ echoed behind the door. Pushing the door open, Jack was slouched against the office chair, surrounded by various sheets and papers and for once the room was a complete mess. There was even a knife buried deep into the mahogany table, something I also hadn’t seen last time I was in here.

“Hi.” Jack said in a tired and strained voice.

“Hi Jack.” He threw himself out of the chair and stood up swiftly, withdrawing the knife embedded in the wood and pocketing it. “Am I interrupting?”

“No, I’m taking a short-uh break.” He wandered around to the front of the desk and proceeded to lean on it.

“Great, um listen I need a new cell phone.” As soon as I mentioned the word, Jack seemed to remember something and patted his waistcoat, before drawing out an object from his pocket.

“Like this one?” He waved the phone in his hand. I stepped towards him and reached for the phone, to which he raised his hand so it was out of my reach.

“How long have you had that?” I jumped up to try and get the phone. Give up, April you look like an idiot.

“Since you first came here, I think. Look it fell out of your pocket, and I was keeping it for safekeeping.” Jack lowered his arm and gave the cellphone back to me. Looking over it, a wave of disappointment washed over me as I saw that the entire device was busted up and the glass screen totally smashed.

“So much for safekeeping,” I muttered. Evidently Jack had heard me, and so reached into his pocket once more and withdrew a bundle of cash, holding it out for me.

“Go and get a new one then.” I couldn’t believe it, estimating about $3,000 in that bundle.

“Are you serious?”

“Not always, But I guess in this case I am.” Jack was just handing me a large sum of money as if it were nothing, and I took it. There wasn’t going to be any questions, I didn’t really want to know how Jack had obtained this money. If I did know, I probably wouldn’t take it. However, I did take it because I was in desperate need of a new cell phone and maybe some new clothes. There would definitely be enough cash left over for that.

“Thank you.” Jack placed the money in the palm of my hand and gave an awkward half smile. He definitely wasn’t used to this kind of thing; relationships. Neither was I to be honest, it was the first time I had ever been with someone and I still had no idea about the inner workings of one. Also, taking into account that Jack wasn’t exactly your typical American man, I’m pretty sure a relationship with him is anything but normal. In one swift move, Jack leant forward and kissed me, a totally unexpected move but I liked it. He then jumped to life and led me to the door.

“Now, it’s better you go sooner rather than later. We’ve got things to do today!” He gestured towards the door but I felt hesitant.

“I’m sorry, you said ‘we’.” Jack looked confused for a moment.

“Uh huh. We’re going out later.”

“Out?”

“Ya know, like a...date.” He whispered the word which seemed foreign to him. But wow, Jack was actually going to take me out on a date. Knowing him, this won’t be a normal date though. Nothing was ever normal with Jack but it was nice. Being with him gave me a sense of adventure and I had discovered a whole new side of me that I never knew existed which liked all of this danger and the criminal life. I was beginning to glamourise it I suppose.

“May I know where?” I asked. Jack shook his head.

“Nope.” He gave a devious smile. What are you planning you beautiful clown? Beautiful? Yes beautiful. This definitely wasn’t going to be a normal date.

“I’ll be back later then.” I gave him my own devious look and proceeded to walk out of the door when something caught my arm. I turned around to see Jack holding my arm.

“Promise me, you’ll come back.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Jack shook his shoulders sheepishly.

“Jack, I promise I’ll come back, I wouldn’t dare miss our date.” He seemed more assured at my words. I reached up and gently kissed him on the forehead; for which I had to push myself to the extreme on my tippy toes, but it worked, and headed out the office door. I didn’t look back but I could feel a pair of eyes watching me walk down the corridor. I never really took him for the paranoid type, especially when it came to women. Why on earth would he think I wouldn’t come back? Maybe years of emotional repression and then this sudden burst of emotion was causing him to act like this. April, stop with the psychiatric report. I can’t help it. I was still a doctor, on paper anyway and Jack used to be my patient. No, Joker used to be my patient. Jack is a whole other kind of personality; certainly a nicer one. Joker terrified me to the bone, he was unpredictable and definitely insane. Jack was like the saner version, sure he still did outrageous things but his mind was definitely a lot calmer.

***

Getting this phone felt like Christmas to me; even though the seasonal holiday was a few months away. I had gone so long with the inability to call and text whoever I wished, it dawned on me that I had actually missed the small little gadget. Putting the small device in my pocket, I decided I better get back to the warehouse, it was getting cold and goosebumps had formed upon my skin when an icy wind swept around me. It would be useful to buy a coat, but I didn’t really have the time to look for one of those now. I had spent so long choosing which phone I wanted, the day had been nearly wasted for it was now late in the afternoon and I didn’t want to keep Jack waiting around to begin our ‘date’.

Making my way back, I walked past a news billboard showing a live video feed of today’s news. Normally, I’m not really interested in what the news had to say, however there was something the reporter said that made me stop and listen. I turned my head and gazed at the reporters large head and the photo that was presented next to him.

“Our top story today is that local doctor and scientist Jonathan Crane has been reported missing. Crane was last seen at Arkham Asylum four days ago and cctv footage shows that he did not leave the building. His car is also still in the parking lot. It is said that Doctor Crane suffered severe stress after Arkham Asylum fell victim to it’s inmates last week resulting in a mass breakout. It was also reported that during this time, another doctor went missing. April Jones who had been working at the hospital for the criminally insane for just under a year disappeared just after the breakout. There has been no news yet on the whereabouts of Jonathan and April…”

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to. But my photo was being shown to all of Gotham. Jonathan was missing too, and suddenly I felt a huge urge to start looking for him. But I couldn’t. It was evidently clear that the GCPD were looking for me now and there were two options I could choose from. First option was that I went to the police and told them everything, second option was that I ran back to the warehouse and continue becoming this criminal. If I took the first one, I would most definitely never see Jack again, he would likely be arrested and sent to Arkham again. I don’t think I was cold enough to do that, it would most likely push him to the ultimate brink of insanity. I steered towards the second option and made my way back to the warehouse. It was mighty difficult, keeping my head down and trying not to be noticed by almost the entire population, but I think I managed it.

Upon returning, Jack was leaning against the entrance door surrounded by a dozen of his henchmen. They constantly wore clown masks and it always creeped me out, they never showed their faces and only one of them had ever spoken to me, I can’t even tell which one it was that held the conversation with me. Skipping up the stairs, Jack opened his arms and we embraced in a short hug. 

“Jeez, how long does it take to buy a phone?” He asked.  
“Sorry, I got distracted.” 

“Yeah yeah, I saw the news too but don’t worry we’re gonna make them forget all about you.” Jack smirked slightly.

“What do you mean?” I had a feeling I knew what was gonna happen.

“Our date. It’ll be the talk of the town tomorrow, now come on let’s go.” He waved his gloved hand and the henchmen began to make their way to the black van parked outside. 

“Jack, you realise a date consists of two people, not fourteen.” He smiled at my confused state.

“We need these guys, trust me.” He thrust a clown mask into my hands.

“Jack, what are we doing?”

“Don’t worry, it’s only a small one” He was beginning to get excited as we both slowly made our way to the van packed with goons.

“What’s a small one?” I questioned.

“The bank we’re robbing.” I knew a date with him couldn’t be normal. I wasn’t expecting a romantic evening dinner or anything, but my thoughts had been far from robbing a bank. Well, you wanted to embrace the criminal lifestyle, April and you got it. My inner monologue was becoming increasingly annoying...and right. If I were with Jack, I had to know that things like this would happen. He hadn’t robbed a bank of countless sums of money since the day he had escaped, it was bound to come along again soon. Jack and I sat in the front of the van, the goons murmuring in the back. He started the car and sped off furiously I looked around and found that the seatbelts had been taken out, it was going to be a bumpy ride then. One of the goons passed a small handgun in front of me, and I delicately held it. Jack flashed me a look and returned his gaze to the road.

“Ever shot one before?” He asked.

“I’ve never even held one.” I bet all the goons are laughing at me. What kind of criminal was I, one that had never even held a weapon.

“Don’t worry, one of the guys will show ya.” Jack swerved a corner and all of the goons moaned for they had all slid to one side of the van. One of them got up, and began telling me how to work the pistol in my hand. He said something about a safety and the trigger but was forced to stop when Jack stamped on the brakes, singing that we had arrived at our destination.

***

Throwing my body back in the van, I tried to regain my breath. Jack clambered back in, screaming at the remaining goons to hurry up and get back in the van. With a screech, we pulled away from the bank, trying to evade the cops. There was blood seeping from my leg but the adrenaline rushing through my body made me oblivious to the pain. Ripping the clown mask from my face, I threw it down and clutched my leg to try and cease the bleeding. Jack was laughing almost hysterically, throwing his head out the window from time to time, checking for the GCPD.

“That. Was. Insane.” I said between breaths, and it was true. I had been terrified and excited at the same time and the adrenaline rush felt blissful. I hadn’t killed anyone, but I did fire the pistol I was given, my task had been to intimidate the bankers and I had been successful. The only hiccup we had was that one of the employees had a gun of his own, and shot me once while I was unaware. One of the goons covered me and shot him in the chest straight afterwards. Thinking about it, I was now a criminal, and Jack was right, this would be all over the news tomorrow.

Jack smashed his foot against the brakes, which threw me almost into the front glass of the van. Looking out, I saw that we were back at the warehouse and I felt relieved to be back home. Luckily we had lost the cops a few blocks back and so were safe to return. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and the pain from the wound in my leg was beginning to creep towards the surface in my mind. I pressed down on my leg hard, the bleeding hadn’t stopped yet. The goons filed out of the van and made their way inside. Jack jumped out and walked to my side of the car. Pulling the door open, he wrapped both of his arms around me and picked me up with significant ease, we made our way back inside too.

“Ya know, you did good, considering it was your first time.” I could sense the euphemism in his voice.

“I got shot though.” The pain in my leg was getting increasingly worse.

“Yeah well, we’ve all been shot, doll.” He didn’t seem to be bothered at the fact that my blood was smeared all over his green waistcoat. He opened the door with his foot, and made his way up the stairs nearby.

“Hey Jack?”

“Mmhmm?”  
“That was a great date.” Looking up, I saw him smile.

“I do my best, doll.” Walking down the corridor, he stopped outside his office and once again opened it with his foot. He gave me a kiss on the forehead as we entered the room. “Now, it’s time to fix your leg.”


	17. True Friends

It took one very long, gruelling hour for Jack to pull the miscellaneous pieces of shrapnel out of my leg. He wasn’t delicate at the job either. The pain writhed around inside my body, mostly my left leg, blood still oozed from the wound at a slow but increasingly dangerous pace and I was sat on the desk shouting all manner of things in Jack’s face.

“Fucking hell! This. Is. Agony!” I screamed through gritted teeth.

“Hold still then!” Jack shouted back, practically wrestling with my leg, trying to hold it in place. In his hand were a pair of bloody tweezers and he was waving them around so much whilst trying to regain control of my leg, I thought he might accidentally stab me with them.

“Well hurry up then!” I began to hyperventilate. Without pain relief the entire thing was excruciatingly painful. Holding my leg, Jack drove the tweezers into the hole in my thigh for the fifth time and pulled out the largest piece of metal. Holding it up against the light, he began to inspect it.

“I think that’s the last piece, Miss Jones.” The pain began to subside a little.

“Took you long enough.” I said between breaths.

“I’ll take that as a thank you.” He flashed me a great big red grin and began to fiddle with the surgical needle and thread.

“Are you sure you can do that?” I doubt Jack had ever done any kind of surgery and he had undoubtedly been brutal in the way he pulled the smashed bullet from my leg.

“I can try.” I braced myself for the mind-numbing pain that would make it’s way through the muscle in my torn leg but surprisingly it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. For once, Jack was being incredibly gentle with the way he was handling things and was trying to cause me as little pain as he possibly could. My mind, which was once clouded began to clear as the pain grew less and less.

“Make sure you pull the stitches tight” I advised. My breathing had returned to a normal pace.

“Will do.” Jack muttered. He seemed to be concentrating quite a lot on the task in hand so I said no more to distract him. I watched intently as he did pull the stitches tight and try to make things look as neat and tidy as possible. Using scissors he freed the needle from the thread and waved his arms to admire his handiwork.

“Not bad, if I do say so myself.” He said, seeming very proud of his work. I was proud too, honestly.

“Well done, Jack. Only took you what? An hour.” We smirked at each other.

“It would’ve been over sooner, but you wouldn’t keep still.” I hopped off the table and a pain shot up through my left leg, which caused me to slip slightly.

“Thank you, though.” I said quietly. Looking up, I placed my hand on his painted face. The white greasepaint would surely rub off onto my hand but I didn’t care. My thumb began to gently caress the scars on his cheeks. They felt colder compared to the rest of his skin and also felt a lot smoother. They weren’t a straight mark either, although unknown at a far distance, up close it was easy to see the jaggedness of the scars. I kissed him and then took my hand away.

“Don’t stop.” The request startled me, and my hand hesitated for a moment. Jack opened his eyes and grabbed my hand delicately between his own. “I like that.”

“How did you get them?” It was a question I was dying to know the answer to. I felt so scared to ask that I practically whispered the words. My hand reached up once more and continued to stroke the scars. Jack gave a small chuckle.

“Truth is, I don’t remember.” There goes the answer to my question. “It happened so long ago, I think I’ve pushed the memory from my mind. It’s not a particularly nice one to have floating around your head.” He said all of this with a gentle voice.

“No, I guess it isn’t.” I’m glad he didn’t remember the story, I don’t think I’d like it if I heard it. In truth, I didn’t really care about the scars, they no longer made him look horrifyingly evil. I never forgot that they were there but they were never going to go away. So I embraced and loved them just as much as I loved the rest of Jack. He had scars, so what? I was going to have a positively huge scar on my left leg, I don’t think Jack would be disgusted by that. I hoped not anyway.

Our peaceful and blissful serenity were soon interrupted when he both heard a ruckus outside of the office door. From what I could tell the sounds were that of flying objects and henchmen groaning from supposedly getting their asses kicked. By what though, I was unsure but it was getting closer so I would soon find out. Then a familiar voice echoed from the other side of the door.

“Joker, I know you’re in there!” I turned to Jack who stood completely still. “We want to know what you did to April, you sick bastard!”

“Pam?” I shouted back. I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that these girls who I called friends had actually gone out of their way to try and rescue me.

“April, that you in there?” She called back, less angry than before. I ran to the door and opened it.

“It’s me.” Pam threw herself at me, hugging me so tightly I could barely breath. Another figure came to the office door, she had been a mere shadow until she finally stepped forward. Pam let go and threw a dirty look behind me, to Jack.

“We thought this nutcase had murdered you.” She gestured at Jack who spoke back.

“I would never dream of killing her.” He called from the back of the room. Pam looked at me, at Jack then back at me, she seemed to have figured out what was going on.

“Oh, I see what’s happening here.” She winked at me and nudged my shoulder. I was pretty sure my entire face resembled the shade of a tomato but I hoped Pamela didn’t notice. I looked around and saw that a third member was missing from the party.

“Where’s Harley?” I asked.

“We thought it would be safer if she stayed at the apartment.” Selina said in her calm-mannered tone.

“I think that was for the best.” I said. The atmosphere became slightly tense as we all remembered what happened yesterday. Pam glared at Jack; if looks could kill, his insides would probably be smeared across the walls. Selina shifted her hips side to side, observing the scene in front of her, one hand closed around her whip just in case Pam or Jack freaked out on each other. Jack scratched his head and gave that look that just said ‘what now?’. Nobody said anything for a few moments, a cloud of awkwardness just shrouded the four of us. The tension was mostly coming from Jack and Pam, I kind of thought it to be my duty to sort this out and amend totally destroyed bridges. Words were spoken out loud, but not from my mouth, someone had spoken just before me.

“Mind if we borrow April for a few hours?” The three of us whipped our heads around to see Selina stepping in front of Pamela. I felt a massive pang of relief as someone else stepped up to break the tension. However, I was slightly surprised that it was Selina, I think all of us were a little shocked. Jack straightened up and assumed position of a some-what protective boyfriend.

“Why do you want her?” There was a slight hostility in his voice, I tensed up ready for a heated argument between him and Pam to begin which seemed to be nearing ever so quickly. Luckily Selina had an incredible knack for keeping conversations civilised.   
“If you don’t mind, us girls here want to show Miss Jones what it takes to be a criminal in Gotham.” Selina had clearly thought of this on the spot because Pam’s face which was once screwed up and angry had changed to one of confusion, but she didn’t dare question the catwoman. Jack seemed confused too but stuck to his hostile way.

“I already showed her earlier.” 

“Oh come on, any criminal knows how to rob a bank. This girl needs to be taught by professionals.”

“What?! You saying my methods aren’t good enough?!” Jack grew a little angrier and it was becoming more obvious that Joker was making an appearance. “Besides, she’s still wounded.”

“I can fix that.” Pam had now stepped in to the conversation. “What do you say, April?” I was torn between two sides. I wanted to stay with Jack and spend time with him considering he was almost always busy, but then again I felt the urge to hang out with the girls, why do I always have to make the decisions here? I turned and gave Jack a sympathetic look, but I could tell he was upset and little pissed.

“I’ll only be gone a few hours.” Pam seemed almost ecstatic that I had chosen them over him. At some point, I needed to sort out their problems with each other.

“Promise me.” Not this again. We had this earlier when Jack made me promise him to come back after going out this morning. I was beginning to notice that he did have a few issues, not that I hadn’t noticed before considering he dresses like a clown and kills people mostly for fun but it’s only now I’m beginning to see a few trust issues pop up.

“I promise I’ll come back.” Jack nodded and waved his hands, shooing the three of us out of the office. Pam grabbed my arm, leading me out of the room, she couldn’t get out of there quick enough. I began to feel really bad about not choosing him, and a part of me just wanted to run back into that room and throw my arms around him. Selina’s voice interrupted my thoughts however as the three of us sped down the corridor and out of the building.

“We’re gonna show you Gotham’s true colours.” Selina purred.


	18. The Man with Two Faces, Literally

After leaving the warehouse, the three of us practically ran all the way back to the girls’ apartment. By the time we got there, it was beginning to get dark and a chill was setting about in the air. My face resembled that of a tomato by the time we reached the door, I don’t think I had ever done that much exercise since high school. It began to occur to me that maybe I was a little unfit. I mean I wasn’t out of shape body-wise but I wasn’t used to this much exercise, not by a long mile; get the pun?

“Maybe you should start training, Apes.” Pam said, laughing at my red-faced, wheezing lump of a body. Selina gave a small smirk as well as she unlocked the door. Maybe they were both right, if I were actually going to start this criminal life which is what I seemed to be doing, I was going to have to get fit; even if I did despise exercise.

“Maybe.” I wheezed and puffed a little. April, you’re being an embarrassment to yourself, pull yourself together. The pain in my leg was beginning to return. Before we had left the warehouse, Pam had done some of her voodoo magic power stuff to temporarily get rid of the pain which was no different to morphine. She might of as well used that. Nevertheless, I was gonna need her to do it again, if they were as Selina said ‘going to show me Gotham’s true colours’.

Selina opened the door and a girl with blond pigtails threw herself at the catwoman. Selina herself smiled and hugged her back, it was a rare sight to see a woman who generally keeps herself level headed and down to earth, actually smile and enjoy an embrace from a friend. Pam smiled at the moment and so did I. In a way, it was a little cute.

“Selina!” Harley spoke with the same high-pitched voice that I could never forget. You knew Harley was around because her voice was just so loud and distinct. If she spoke for too long though it started to become annoying. Next, she threw herself at Pam, who gave her a long hug back.

“Nice to see you haven’t gotten yourself in trouble while we were gone.” Pam said, laughing as she said it. Harley giggled too. Letting go of Pam, she turned to me and stopped for a moment. Taking in my presence, for her face seemed to be concentrating, she was clearly thinking about something. At first she seemed unsure, but then unexpectedly she threw herself at me just as much as she had done with Selina and Pamela.

“Thank you!” Her voice echoed through my ears and around my mind. Returning the hug, I knew exactly what she was thanking me for. We held each other for a moment, completely getting rid of any hostile feelings we previously had for each other. This had finally become a genuine friendship.   
“No problem, Harls.” I replied. We let go of each other and I looked around to see three friends around me. Despite these women technically being criminals, they were the best friends I had ever had and I truly meant that. It didn’t matter to me what crimes they had committed, I managed to see past that as I had done with Jack and I could see the goodness within the hearts of these girls. At this moment, I felt incredibly lucky.

“Come on, let’s get going.” Selina said locking the door. The four of us turned on our heels and headed down the corridor. 

“So, where are we going exactly?” I asked as we made our way down the several staircases which would surely lead to me being out of breath by the time we got down to the bottom; cursed unfitness.

“We’re going to visit a dear friend of mine.” I didn’t have a clue what Selina was on about, but Pam did, apparently.

“Seriously, Selina? Can’t you just let it go?” She seemed to be trying to reason with her about the whole thing.

“No, I can’t let it go. Something valuable was stolen from me and I’m going to kick his ass for it.” That statement was pretty ironic considering Selina was a professional thief for a living but I guess we were going to go do this. Pam didn’t look happy in the slightest and Harley didn’t really seem to care. I on the other hand was starting to mentally shit bricks. Selina said ‘he’ so he was definitely a guy and he stole something from her so was a criminal just like the four of us. What a show this’ll turn out to be, probably.

***

Pam, Harley and I had been sitting on the courthouse roof for the past twenty minutes, shivering and freezing our asses off. Harley was humming to herself and Pam looked downright pissed off. I still had no idea what was going on and all I could think about was the possibility that I might fall off of this roof if I moved over to the right a little bit too much. It was starting to get deep into the night, and I kind of wanted to go back home to Jack and wrap myself in the warm blankets of the four poster bed. I hadn’t expected to spend my night sitting on a rooftop with the dark clouds floating above us threatening to open fire and drop water droplets all over us and the rest of Gotham. Definitely what I wasn’t expecting. I guess this was the criminal life eh?

“She’s been gone for too long.” Pam broke the silence. Harley and I turned to her, clearly still unaware of the danger this problem presented.

“Selina said to wait for the signal.” I spoke up, my lips were slightly numb from the cold wind that blew around us.  
“I know, but something isn’t right.” Pam looked worried. “She never takes this long, she’s usually in and out within a heartbeat, something must have happened.” It occurred to me, that the three of us would most probably have to go into the courthouse after Selina.

“So what should we do?” I asked. Harley piped up as well.

“We should go after her.”

“For once, Harley’s actually right.” To be honest, the three of us were all sick and tired of being on the roof, cold and sitting like ducks waiting for the rain to fall. I didn’t really feel all that nervous at the prospect of going into the building and possibly facing danger. Now, it felt like a thrill. Pam seemed to have come up with a plan.

“Alright, there’s a window on the right side of this building which leads into the hallway, which allows us to avoid the armed guards outside. Hopefully there aren’t any in the corridor waiting to gun us down.” Harley and I nodded at Pam’s instructions and made our way to the edge of the roof, careful not to slip up. Looking over the side, I could see a windowsill jutting out of the wall, and light was peering through the glass window. Pam smoothly jumped down in one move, and Harley followed behind her, a little slower in her movement than Pamela. I started to doubt carrying out this task successfully and slowly hauled my ass over the side of the room to which a hand grabbed my ankle and I started to panic, my hand slipped a little.

“Calm down, it’s just Harley.” Pam whispered, clearly not wanting to alert the guards that were stationed just around the corner. Breathing in and out to calm myself down, I slowly lowered myself onto the windowsill, guided by Harley. Surprisingly, all three of us managed to fit on the rectangle piece of concrete. Pam pushed the window open gently, trying to create as little noise as possible. Looking around and sensing no danger, she motioned towards Harley who jumped through the window, Pam followed after her leaving me outside all on my own. This left me no other choice than to jump through the window too, completely blind to the dangers this might present.

My feet landed on carpeted ground, and my eyes stung slightly against the bitterly bright lights. Pam and Harley were in front of me, and the three of us stood in a large, heavily decorated hallway just like Pam’s instructions said we would.

“Alright follow me, and be quiet, Harley that part was for you.” Pam said. Harley looked offended by her comment.

“Hey!” She wailed.

“Shh!” Pam whispered. Everything became silent once again. The three of us walked in single file, trying to make as little noise as possibly. There were probably armed guards crawling all over the place, just like the entrance outside. Pam looked the most paranoid, her head darted this way and that checking for either guards or Selina. We came up to a fancy, decorated wooden door and Harley shoved past, and trying to looked through the gap in the door, she was becoming impatient. Pam shooed her away and grabbed the doorknob, wondering whether to open it or not,

“Right, I’ll go through first, then Harley, then you Apes.” I nodded to her, noting that I was evidently last in this sequence of events. I tried not to let that bother me, even though it reminded me of getting picked last for sports class at high school. Pam slipped through the door creating little to no sound. Harley waited a few moments before opening the door and sliding away from me, closing the door behind her. I waited for a few moments longer, waiting for a large burly guard to come charging into the room. It was silent however, and the complete silence creeped me out a little. I took a deep breath and boldly walked into the room, expecting no danger.

I looked around the room, which was probably the main courtroom of the building. In front of me, Harley and Pam were sprawled across the red velvet carpet and my heart sank slightly. Something was definitely not right, and I definitely wasn’t equipped with the right skills to handle the situation. A shadow appeared opposite me at the far end of the room, clutching a body close to him that writhed around trying to break free. The stranger stepped into the light, and I instantly recognised Selina bound with rope and struggling against the arm that held her in place. I didn’t recognise the guy, although the girls had told me stories about him. The state of his face made my stomach a little queasy. 

When I had first heard the story about this guy’s appearance, I hadn’t quite believed it at first. I mean, how can you have a face that’s half burnt and half normal, it was impossible; or so I thought. But the suited man in front of me literally had two faces. One was normal and carried hair, lips and an eye perfectly enclosed behind eyelids. The other half was all blackened and burned, some parts of the skin were still red and seemed sore. There was torn muscle visible and there were no lips, hair or an eyelid around the other eye. He laughed before he spoke.

“Four women in one night? Wow, I must be a popular guy.” He said with a smirk that only spread across one side of his face.

“Two Face.” I had intended to say that quietly to myself however it came out louder than I had expected. The guy seemed quite pleased that I knew who he was.

“So you know who I am. However, I don’t know you.” Selina struggled harder against his arm, but he began to squeeze her tightly to repel her from trying to escape. “Don’t worry, we’ll get plenty of time to talk.” He nodded and before I knew it, something hard thumped me across the head. I felt to the floor with a thud and everything went dark. Two Face’s laughed echoed across my mind as my vision faded into nothingness.


	19. An Unexpected Arrival

After leaving the warehouse, the three of us practically ran all the way back to the girls’ apartment. By the time we got there, it was beginning to get dark and a chill was setting about in the air. My face resembled that of a tomato by the time we reached the door, I don’t think I had ever done that much exercise since high school. It began to occur to me that maybe I was a little unfit. I mean I wasn’t out of shape body-wise but I wasn’t used to this much exercise, not by a long mile; get the pun?

“Maybe you should start training, Apes.” Pam said, laughing at my red-faced, wheezing lump of a body. Selina gave a small smirk as well as she unlocked the door. Maybe they were both right, if I were actually going to start this criminal life which is what I seemed to be doing, I was going to have to get fit; even if I did despise exercise.

“Maybe.” I wheezed and puffed a little. April, you’re being an embarrassment to yourself, pull yourself together. The pain in my leg was beginning to return. Before we had left the warehouse, Pam had done some of her voodoo magic power stuff to temporarily get rid of the pain which was no different to morphine. She might of as well used that. Nevertheless, I was gonna need her to do it again, if they were as Selina said ‘going to show me Gotham’s true colours’.

Selina opened the door and a girl with blond pigtails threw herself at the catwoman. Selina herself smiled and hugged her back, it was a rare sight to see a woman who generally keeps herself level headed and down to earth, actually smile and enjoy an embrace from a friend. Pam smiled at the moment and so did I. In a way, it was a little cute.

“Selina!” Harley spoke with the same high-pitched voice that I could never forget. You knew Harley was around because her voice was just so loud and distinct. If she spoke for too long though it started to become annoying. Next, she threw herself at Pam, who gave her a long hug back.

“Nice to see you haven’t gotten yourself in trouble while we were gone.” Pam said, laughing as she said it. Harley giggled too. Letting go of Pam, she turned to me and stopped for a moment. Taking in my presence, for her face seemed to be concentrating, she was clearly thinking about something. At first she seemed unsure, but then unexpectedly she threw herself at me just as much as she had done with Selina and Pamela.

“Thank you!” Her voice echoed through my ears and around my mind. Returning the hug, I knew exactly what she was thanking me for. We held each other for a moment, completely getting rid of any hostile feelings we previously had for each other. This had finally become a genuine friendship.   
“No problem, Harls.” I replied. We let go of each other and I looked around to see three friends around me. Despite these women technically being criminals, they were the best friends I had ever had and I truly meant that. It didn’t matter to me what crimes they had committed, I managed to see past that as I had done with Jack and I could see the goodness within the hearts of these girls. At this moment, I felt incredibly lucky.

“Come on, let’s get going.” Selina said locking the door. The four of us turned on our heels and headed down the corridor. 

“So, where are we going exactly?” I asked as we made our way down the several staircases which would surely lead to me being out of breath by the time we got down to the bottom; cursed unfitness.

“We’re going to visit a dear friend of mine.” I didn’t have a clue what Selina was on about, but Pam did, apparently.

“Seriously, Selina? Can’t you just let it go?” She seemed to be trying to reason with her about the whole thing.

“No, I can’t let it go. Something valuable was stolen from me and I’m going to kick his ass for it.” That statement was pretty ironic considering Selina was a professional thief for a living but I guess we were going to go do this. Pam didn’t look happy in the slightest and Harley didn’t really seem to care. I on the other hand was starting to mentally shit bricks. Selina said ‘he’ so he was definitely a guy and he stole something from her so was a criminal just like the four of us. What a show this’ll turn out to be, probably.

***

Pam, Harley and I had been sitting on the courthouse roof for the past twenty minutes, shivering and freezing our asses off. Harley was humming to herself and Pam looked downright pissed off. I still had no idea what was going on and all I could think about was the possibility that I might fall off of this roof if I moved over to the right a little bit too much. It was starting to get deep into the night, and I kind of wanted to go back home to Jack and wrap myself in the warm blankets of the four poster bed. I hadn’t expected to spend my night sitting on a rooftop with the dark clouds floating above us threatening to open fire and drop water droplets all over us and the rest of Gotham. Definitely what I wasn’t expecting. I guess this was the criminal life eh?

“She’s been gone for too long.” Pam broke the silence. Harley and I turned to her, clearly still unaware of the danger this problem presented.

“Selina said to wait for the signal.” I spoke up, my lips were slightly numb from the cold wind that blew around us.  
“I know, but something isn’t right.” Pam looked worried. “She never takes this long, she’s usually in and out within a heartbeat, something must have happened.” It occurred to me, that the three of us would most probably have to go into the courthouse after Selina.

“So what should we do?” I asked. Harley piped up as well.

“We should go after her.”

“For once, Harley’s actually right.” To be honest, the three of us were all sick and tired of being on the roof, cold and sitting like ducks waiting for the rain to fall. I didn’t really feel all that nervous at the prospect of going into the building and possibly facing danger. Now, it felt like a thrill. Pam seemed to have come up with a plan.

“Alright, there’s a window on the right side of this building which leads into the hallway, which allows us to avoid the armed guards outside. Hopefully there aren’t any in the corridor waiting to gun us down.” Harley and I nodded at Pam’s instructions and made our way to the edge of the roof, careful not to slip up. Looking over the side, I could see a windowsill jutting out of the wall, and light was peering through the glass window. Pam smoothly jumped down in one move, and Harley followed behind her, a little slower in her movement than Pamela. I started to doubt carrying out this task successfully and slowly hauled my ass over the side of the room to which a hand grabbed my ankle and I started to panic, my hand slipped a little.

“Calm down, it’s just Harley.” Pam whispered, clearly not wanting to alert the guards that were stationed just around the corner. Breathing in and out to calm myself down, I slowly lowered myself onto the windowsill, guided by Harley. Surprisingly, all three of us managed to fit on the rectangle piece of concrete. Pam pushed the window open gently, trying to create as little noise as possible. Looking around and sensing no danger, she motioned towards Harley who jumped through the window, Pam followed after her leaving me outside all on my own. This left me no other choice than to jump through the window too, completely blind to the dangers this might present.

My feet landed on carpeted ground, and my eyes stung slightly against the bitterly bright lights. Pam and Harley were in front of me, and the three of us stood in a large, heavily decorated hallway just like Pam’s instructions said we would.

“Alright follow me, and be quiet, Harley that part was for you.” Pam said. Harley looked offended by her comment.

“Hey!” She wailed.

“Shh!” Pam whispered. Everything became silent once again. The three of us walked in single file, trying to make as little noise as possibly. There were probably armed guards crawling all over the place, just like the entrance outside. Pam looked the most paranoid, her head darted this way and that checking for either guards or Selina. We came up to a fancy, decorated wooden door and Harley shoved past, and trying to looked through the gap in the door, she was becoming impatient. Pam shooed her away and grabbed the doorknob, wondering whether to open it or not,

“Right, I’ll go through first, then Harley, then you Apes.” I nodded to her, noting that I was evidently last in this sequence of events. I tried not to let that bother me, even though it reminded me of getting picked last for sports class at high school. Pam slipped through the door creating little to no sound. Harley waited a few moments before opening the door and sliding away from me, closing the door behind her. I waited for a few moments longer, waiting for a large burly guard to come charging into the room. It was silent however, and the complete silence creeped me out a little. I took a deep breath and boldly walked into the room, expecting no danger.

I looked around the room, which was probably the main courtroom of the building. In front of me, Harley and Pam were sprawled across the red velvet carpet and my heart sank slightly. Something was definitely not right, and I definitely wasn’t equipped with the right skills to handle the situation. A shadow appeared opposite me at the far end of the room, clutching a body close to him that writhed around trying to break free. The stranger stepped into the light, and I instantly recognised Selina bound with rope and struggling against the arm that held her in place. I didn’t recognise the guy, although the girls had told me stories about him. The state of his face made my stomach a little queasy. 

When I had first heard the story about this guy’s appearance, I hadn’t quite believed it at first. I mean, how can you have a face that’s half burnt and half normal, it was impossible; or so I thought. But the suited man in front of me literally had two faces. One was normal and carried hair, lips and an eye perfectly enclosed behind eyelids. The other half was all blackened and burned, some parts of the skin were still red and seemed sore. There was torn muscle visible and there were no lips, hair or an eyelid around the other eye. He laughed before he spoke.

“Four women in one night? Wow, I must be a popular guy.” He said with a smirk that only spread across one side of his face.

“Two Face.” I had intended to say that quietly to myself however it came out louder than I had expected. The guy seemed quite pleased that I knew who he was.

“So you know who I am. However, I don’t know you.” Selina struggled harder against his arm, but he began to squeeze her tightly to repel her from trying to escape. “Don’t worry, we’ll get plenty of time to talk.” He nodded and before I knew it, something hard thumped me across the head. I felt to the floor with a thud and everything went dark. Two Face’s laughed echoed across my mind as my vision faded into nothingness.


	20. Drunken Pursuits

After Batman had flown out back into Gotham, the girls decided to call it a night. The four of us were all drained after the events of tonight. Two Face had still been out cold on the court room floor and Selina had thought about killing him then and there, but Pamela’s protests won her over. Harley had remained silent whilst we walked out of the building. I had been offered a place at the apartment again, but right now I just wanted to go back and see Jack, I missed him. Waving goodbye to my friends, we took off in different directions, heading for home.

My head pounded still, and the pain in my leg began to get worse as I trudged back to the warehouse. I wasn’t sure what the time was but I figured it was extremely late considering the majority of Gotham was silent as of right now. The events of today had left me extremely weak and tired, the first thing I’d do when I got back was drink. I need to down some alcohol in order to help me process what had happened today. 

***

“Where the fuck have you been?!” Those were the first words I heard immediately entering the warehouse. Clearly Jack had been waiting for me all night, I wondered how long exactly he had waited, it was probably a long time because he seemed quite pissed with me. I wasn’t in the mood to argue over it though.

“Chill out, I’m back in one piece aren’t I?” Jack had been sitting on a chair in the hallway in the dark. I turned on the light to see his face, a look of worry and stress smeared across his face. It still surprised me a little when he acted like this.

“Barely.” I knew I was going to have to tell him at some point, so it might as well be now.I took a deep breath before explaining.

“We were at the town courtroom, Selina got captured by Two Face, then Pam, Harley and I also got captured, and then we almost died, but then Batman saved us.” Upon hearing the masked vigilante’s name, Jack became Joker again for a moment.

“Fucking Batman?! You told him I was here didn’t you?!” He practically shouted at me, he hadn’t shouted at me before. I didn’t know how to react, I just sat there shocked at what he just said. His eyes became soft again, and Jack returned once more.

“I told him I didn’t know you.” I was a little pissed now. I turned my eyes away from him and darted past, not ready to hear what else he had to say. I just needed a fucking drink. I headed upstairs and down the corridor turned left into the so-called living room which so conveniently had a bar. I went behind the table and picked up a bottle of whiskey. I missed drinking. Opening the bottle, I took a large swig, the liquid warming my body up and already making me forget my troubles. 

I sat at the bar for what seemed an hour, looking at the clock I noticed it was ten to three in the morning. I didn’t plan on sleeping tonight. I just had a sudden urge to finish the entire whiskey bottle. My head already felt a little fuzzy but I didn’t feel drunk yet. Then again, drunk people always deny being drunk don’t they? 

After everything that had happened to me in the last few week, I think I deserved to get drunk. I deserved to drown in alcohol and forget my own name for one night. I was no longer a respected doctor, I was no longer a regular citizen of Gotham, I was now dating the Clown Prince of Crime, and I had almost died by the hands of fucking Two Face. I was going to get smashed. I took another swig of whiskey, loving the feeling of it flowing down my throat and slowly clouding my mind. Is it me or were the lights in this room getting dimmer?

“April?” I faintly heard the voice behind me.

“What?” I replied, the alcohol making it a little hard to pronounce words.

“I’m sorry. And I don’t say that often.”

“Come over here.” Something had come over me. I was no longer pissed off at him, but instead felt something else. I think it was the whiskey but I wasn’t sure at this point. Jack stood next to me and I shifted on the bar stool to face him. I was seeing it again, the face behind the paint, and the body under the shirt, which I had already seen once before, and I kind of wanted to see it again.

“I love you.” I said. I may be slightly drunk but I meant every word of that sentence.

“I love you too.” It was still clear that he wasn’t used to saying it either but I knew he meant it. I hoped he did. I leant over and kissed him. He kissed back and we embraced each other and kissed some more. His makeup was probably smeared all over my face but I didn’t care right now. The alcohol in my system was definitely taking over at this point because everything that happened was becoming blurry in my mind.

He picked me up in his arms and sat me on the bar. I wrapped my legs around his waist and touched his lips with my own. Though my mind was clouded I could clearly remember that this was exactly how we had first kissed each other. Jack had picked me up and put me on his office desk and we had shared a hot and fiery kiss. Which was practically the same as we were doing now. Our hands wandered over each others bodies, and I began to unbutton his shirt, exposing his chest to me. I was wandering into the point of no return, but I was drunk and I didn’t care.  
“Bedroom?” He said as we both came up for air from our kiss. I nodded and he picked me up once again, only this time carrying me out of the room and down the corridor. We entered the bedroom and he threw me down on the soft silk sheets of the bed. I sat up and removed the unbuttoned shirt, exposing his well toned chest. In return, Jack removed my shirt, I hadn’t felt this exposed since that time he caught me out of the shower. It was a rush and a feeling I couldn’t deny any longer.

***

Waking up, I guessed it to be late afternoon. I had a slight headache and realised that I was not alone in the four poster bed. Jack was naked and had his arm wrapped around me protectively. I tried to move, however stopped when I realised that everything ached and I felt sore. I pretty much knew what had happened last night and I’m not even sure how I managed it. It might’ve been the whiskey, I think. 

Jack’s makeup was almost all gone, save for a few smears of white or red here or there. His scars were visible to me now and I reached over and gently rubbed them with my thumb. This was the first time I had seen the guy without his warpaint, and he looked somewhat normal, he would be if it weren’t for the scars. He still had the green hair, but I kinda liked it. Not many guys could pull that off, luckily he could. One day, I’d try to convince him to not wear it.

For once, Jack looked peaceful, just sleeping. Most of the time, he either looked angry, stressed, worried, crazed or some other emotion. Right now, his face showed no anger or any kind of hurt, just quiet and peaceful. It was a rare sight to see him like this and so I took advantage of the opportunity. With my face, I gently traced his scars and certain lines of his face. I wasn’t sure how old he was, he was young but still a little older than me, near 30’s maybe?

He turned over onto his back and for a moment I worried that I had awoken him from his peaceful slumber. Luckily he was still asleep, and so I wrapped my arm around him, leaning my head gently on his chest. My mind was a little clearer than it was last night, and I began to wonder how long this would last. I hadn’t been with any guy before and so just wanted this to last as long as possible. 

Love. How could one describe love? It was a complicated matter and no amount of research or thought may be able to make it fully understandable. Sure, there were different types of love, but how could one perfectly describe the love between a man and a woman. Not a lot of people would be able to understand the love between Jack and I, sometimes I didn’t understand myself. This guy, that kills for fun and dons himself as a clown and somehow I managed to see past of all that and say that I love the guy. I would have to say that being in love is when the weather is good every day, because the wind and rain are just another kind of good weather when you’re in the company of the person you love.


	21. The Choices We Make

I must have fallen asleep again for when I opened my eyes, I was the only person tangled up in the silk sheets of the bed. Jack was no longer by my side and and the space where he had been laying was now cold, as if he hadn’t been there at all. The effects of the whiskey I had swallowed last night was near non existent save for the small headache in the back of my head. Images of last night were finally coming back to me and I still wasn’t sure what to think of it, everything was still so surreal.

It had been a busy day, to say the least. Apart from getting shot in the leg, almost having my brains splattered all over the floor by Two Face and his shiny revolver and drowning myself in whiskey, it had been a thrill-filled day. Although, the dangers of this lifestyle were becoming increasingly evident to me, I was beginning to like it a lot more than my previous life. I was no longer doing the same job day in day out, watching the same shows on tv every night, eating the same microwavable meals every day. Instead, my life had now become a blur of danger, thrills and criminality. I was also sharing this new life with the guy that had stolen me from my old one.

I was learning a lot too. I was beginning to learn that there was more to Gotham than the facade it creates about it being a safe haven due to forces like GCPD and Batman. Underneath that mask, there was a massive criminal underground and more lawbreakers than I care to mention. Every day, I was being educated about shadows like Two Face and other more dangerous men in the city. Yet, I wasn’t terrified of these people, sure it was intimidating meeting face to face with them, but let’s face it, they’ve been in the game a lot longer than I have. But I was learning.

Surprisingly I had fallen in love, and each and every day I was falling more and more for Jack. In truth, I still know jack shit about the man apart from the really obvious things, but the way he acted around me, it was different. Back at Arkham, I had spoken to Joker, been taunted by him, intimidated by him, he had caused an uneasiness within myself and made me doubt everything that I had ever learned. Jack, well Jack was a whole other person. I wasn’t intimidated by him, not one bit, and for once I was sure about myself and the decisions that I had made in the past few weeks. I couldn’t leave now, I couldn’t give him up to Batman, I was in too deep but I loved it. 

It was clear that Joker was a facade to guard himself from his feelings. As I was beginning to understand Jack more, I realised that he had stepped miles out of his comfort zone in order to face his own feelings and connect with mine. For once, he was trying to be himself and I really admired the guy for it. For someone who has suppressed all of this emotion for god knows how many years, keeping it locked up tightly inside of himself and to then suddenly let these feelings loose again, it honestly made me grateful for the way things had turned out. Joker had kidnapped me, but Jack didn’t and I guess that’s the reason I wasn’t so bitter about being taken away from my previous life. Like I said, I was grateful, and it sounds crazy but if Joker had never taken me away then I probably would never have gotten to know Jack and we wouldn’t be in this relationship.

I had noticed a radical change in myself too. I remember I used to be the kind of person who always abided by the rules, a real goody-two shoes you could say. I was reluctant for change, for anything different, I liked routine and order and for everything to go according to how I would plan it in my head. Yet, now I was robbing banks, handling guns and just doing whatever the fuck I felt like doing. I was in a relationship with the Clown Prince of Crime and don’t forget I fucked him last night after getting smashed on whiskey. If my mother and father could see me now, I have a feeling they would disown me immediately.

Not that I would actually care if they did disown me. My mother has practically been looking for an acceptable reason to do so since I hit puberty. She never approved of any of the things I did, never liked the friends that I used to have, and absolutely hated my career choice. I swear, she almost had a heart attack as soon as I told her where I was working.

“Arkham Asylum?! They’re hopeless cases, April.”  
“But Mom..”  
“You’d be better off as an accountant just like your father and I.”  
“But Mo--”  
“Honestly, all of those years of university were wasted on that psychology course.”  
“Mo--”  
“I said to your father we should’ve intervened.”

There was never any getting through to that damn woman. Since I was thirteen I had never been able to get a word in edgeways whilst she was dominating the conversation, which was practically all the time. My father rarely spoke, mostly kept to himself all day every day. Every night he would come home from work, pick up the newspaper and slouch back in his armchair for the majority of the night. He’d flick through the pages, reading only the most interesting articles, and then he’d put it down and head into his office. None of the family were allowed into that office apart from himself, I had never even seen the interior of the room.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that the person I am becoming may be the person I was always meant to be. Living with my parents, I could never be myself, ever. Everything I did during my childhood, I did to try and please my mother, evidently it didn’t work. My father neither approved or disapprove, always just nodded in agreement with his wife to prevent her going into a fit of rage. I thought that becoming a psychiatry doctor would please them, make them finally believe that they had a daughter to be proud of but if anything, it’s the one career they disapproved of more than any others.

But honestly, if I saw them now I’d probably tell them to go fuck themselves. Mother would probably cry an ocean of tears hearing her daughter swear but if anything she’s only brought it upon herself. Then again, I dread to think of what she’d do if she found out I had been an accomplice with a clown killer, robbing a bank. That woman would definitely disown me.

My thought process was interrupted by the sound of the door opening, squeaking a little at the hinges. Jack shuffled in, carrying a tray which I guessed was carrying food. He had gotten dressed and was sporting his purple suit minus the suit jacket, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and he hadn’t bothered putting on his greasepaint. I forgot that I was currently wearing a lot less clothes and began to wrap the bedsheets around my body. I pushed my tangled hair out of my face and leaned back a little as Jack placed the tray on my lap.

“What’s this?” I inquired. I looked at what had been laid out on the silver platter and was slightly bemused by what was in front of me. About a dozen slices of blackened toast were placed in a pile in the right corner, more blackened toast that contained burnt bacon between them, eggs that had lost their yolk and a cup of coffee on the left. I had to admire the man’s efforts, but it was evident that Jack was not blessed with the gift of cooking.

“It’s meant to be breakfast, but I think I screwed it up.” He stood beside the bed awkwardly, scratching his head and licking his lips like he habitually did.

“It’s the thought that counts.” I said, smiling him. Honestly, I thought this was the most adorable thing that any guy had ever done for me, despite the majority of it being inedible, but I took the cup of coffee and placed it on the bedside table before pushing the tray near the edge of the bed.

“I can do better.” He said, walking around the bed and throwing himself onto the other side. I realised that I was still naked, and my cheeks began to blush being in such close proximity to Jack, which was strange considering I was very sure that we had engaged in sexual activity just last night. Pull yourself together, April.

“Hey Jack, can I ask you something?” He buried himself in the pillow, looking disappointed that he had little to no skills in the kitchen.

“Sure, doll.” He muffled through the pillow.

“Um, what happened last night?” I knew the answer, but dreaded hearing it. I didn’t even know why I asked, he knew and I knew, but I guess I just wanted to confirm it so I could safely say that my virginity has been well and truly lost.

“Well, firstly you drank all my whiskey.” He lifted his head from the pillow and turned his head to face me so that his voice was no longer muffled by the pillow. “Then we-uh fucked.” I knew it. In some way, I felt a little disappointed in myself. Since hitting puberty, I had always refrained from any kind of sexual activity, I hadn’t even been kissed until last week, and now I had slept with a guy after getting pissed on a few bottles of whiskey.

In some way, it felt right even though it was totally wrong in my moral code of conduct. I’m glad it had been Jack though, if it had been anyone else I think I would definitely be disgusted with myself. I began to imagine a scenario where I had ended up with Jonathan Crane instead of Jack and instantly I began to throw up a little in my mouth at the thought of doing the hanky panky with my old professor. Nope, image must be deleted from brain, just look at Jack. Okay, that’s better. I took a sip of coffee before sliding down next to him, placing my head on his chest.

Jack put his arms around me in a sort of protective way, we stayed like this for a while and I was pretty sure it was nearing late afternoon, and I began to feel extremely lazy for staying in bed all day. Then again, I had had a busy night so I no longer felt too lazy. My eyes were closed and I was on the verge of drifting off to sleep. Suddenly, Jack jolted and interrupted my going to sleep, at first I thought he was getting out of bed but he was only repositioning himself. He propped himself up on one elbow, the other arm still placed over my stomach and I buried my head into his chest taking in his strange scent that always carried the smell of gunpowder with it.

“You’re good you know.” I heard him say in a low voice.

“Huh?” I mumbled into his chest.

“Sex. You’re good.” I could sense he was smirking with his words. He was definitely enjoying this. Personally, I just wanted to lay here and go to sleep.

“Oh hush now, Jack, we both know that’s a lie.” I turned over to the other side of the bed and he followed so that he ended up spooning me,

“I’m serious, doll.” He leaned in close and whispered to me, this always gave me goosebumps running down my spine. “You got some moves in the bedroom, baby.” I grabbed the blanket and threw it over my head, burying myself from Jack’s words. It felt nice being complicated on my performance in bed, but it still felt strange hearing it from him.

“Hey, don’t hide from the truth, dollface.” He ripped the blanket from my grip and held my hand gently in his so that I could no longer hide my face. He gave me a gentle peck on the forehead, trailing kisses down my nose and left cheek until he reached my neck. I gasped slightly as I realised he was leaving a little love bite there and a moan accidentally escaped my lips.

“Round 2?” He asked between kisses. I let out a small giggle.

“Maybe after some decent breakfast.”


	22. Phone Calls and Riddles

I remember saying not long ago how none of this was normal, and that I was to never be a part of this world. My body and mine would always go into a state of panic whenever I would stand in the presence of Jack and any of his goons. Oh, how everything was very different now. Now, I was dating the Clown Prince of Crime and actually becoming a part of Gotham’s criminal underworld. It was bizarre, but it definitely felt real. Now I was really beginning to accept it all and even embrace this new life.

My time with Jack had come to an end this morning when one of his goons rushed up to the door, knocking as if it were the end of the world. Jack had grumbled and almost refused to get out of bed, until I eventually gave him a helping hand by gently shoving him off the four poster bed. He had shuffled over, throwing the door open, pissed that he had been interrupted so suddenly. Jack hadn’t even bothered to put his shirt or pants on. He had strolled right on over to the door just in his boxers. Not that I was complaining, but it was definitely a surprise for the goon waiting on the other side of the door.

“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Jack said, clearly annoyed.

“Boss, we got a problem?” The goon looked a little nervous.

“What?!” The goon looked over in my direction and back at Jack, then leaned in and started whispering something, evidently so that I wouldn’t hear. It took a while for the henchmen to explain what was happening to Jack, in the mean time I had flopped back onto the bed, waiting for them to finish their conversation. When the goon had finished, he straightened up and Jack began to shake his head, furiously.

“You’re fucking kidding me?!” He rushed over to the bed, preferably the side that he had taken for himself. Pulling on his shirt and rushing around trying to slip his pants on, he made his way to my side and lightly kissed me on the forehead. “I gotta go, doll.” I was a bit confused on the change in situation.

“What’s going on?” Jack stopped just short of the door.

“I got some business to sort out.” He threw his jacket over his shoulders and proceeded to walk out the door.

“Promise me you’ll come back.” I shouted, hoping he heard me. Luckily a voice wavered from the corridor beyond.

“I promise, doll.” He called back.

And with that, the place was silent again, except for my own breathing. I couldn’t remember the last time I had heard real peace. It was strange and I almost didn’t like it. I stared up at the ceiling of the room, not even thinking about anything, just staring. My hand brushed across my left thigh, to which a bandage still covered my bullet wound. The cloth began to feel a little tight so gripping it, I ripped it from my leg exposing the wound to the cold air. 

Surprisingly, Jack had actually done a very good job of stitching the hole in my leg. The skin around it still looked a little bruised, but it was definitely healing. Before long, I could probably pull out the stitches soon and say I survived my first bullet wound. I smiled, this would actually be considered an achievement to me.

Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, a shrill ringing filled the room. At first, I wasn’t sure what the sound was but then I realised that it was my phone that I had left in the pocket of my skinny jeans which were currently sprawled across the floor due to my drunken antics with Jack the night before. 

Just like Jack had done earlier, I edged myself off the bed until I genty flopped onto the carpeted floor. It took me a while to locate my my jeans considering Jack had thrown them off into near oblivion, the echoed ringing of the phone didn’t make it any easier in locating the item of clothing. Somehow they had ended up all the way near the bathroom door. I pulled the phone out of the pocket, it was still ringing.

“Hello?” I asked quietly. I wasn’t sure who I had given my number too, so had no clue as to who it was. He had a strange voice, not one that I recognised.

“Doctor Jones, I presume?” He had a quality about his voice that made me assume that this guy wasn’t a criminal. Or not one, that I had heard of before. Also, no one had called me doctor in a while, which was also a surprise to me.

“Depends who’s asking?” I stood up and began walking around the room, stretching my legs.

“Maybe, you’d be interested to know where Joker is.” Shocked, I ended the call and threw the phone at the bed which bounced onto the sheets. This guy knew that Jack had just left the warehouse. But how could he possibly know something like that, unless the creep was watching us. If he was indeed watching us then I felt very exposed right now and proceed to grab my large hoodie and throw it over my body. 

It had to be a joke, no one could possibly be watching the warehouse or Jack and I. I bet this was a prank created by the clown himself. It was something he would do to scare me. He was probably sat in another room right now surrounded by his goons, giggling like the little shit he was knowing that his little joke was indeed making me paranoid. Suddenly the shill ringing began once again and the phone lit up on the bed sheets. I looked over and saw that the number was withheld just like before.  
“Jack, this isn’t fucking funny.” I blurted out, the caller was silent for a moments, then he spoke.

“Hang up one more time and I may not tell you where Joker is.” This definitely wasn’t Jack. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up seriously for this long. Now I was beginning to panic, someone knew that he had left the warehouse and now it sounded as though they were threatening his life.

“Where is he?” My voice became firmer, and I was beginning to grow impatient.

“Tell you what, you play my game and I’ll give you the clown’s location.” Now the son of a bitch wanted to play games. I suppose I had to, if I wanted to know where Jack was. It shouldn’t be too hard, right?

“Alright, I’ll play your stupid game.” I sat down on the bed, phone still in hand, ready to endure whatever this stranger had in store for me.

“Excellent.” He almost sounded excited and cleared his throat before continuing. “Riddle me this, Doctor Jones, I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest man can’t hold me for much more than a minute. What am I?” Oh dear god, this man was asking me riddles. I fucking suck at riddles. I racked my brain hard looking for the answer, desperate to save Jack. Come on, April, light as a feather and a strong man can’t hold it for more than a minute. Hold on, I think an answer was coming to me.

“Breath? It’s breath right? Please tell me I’m right.” I nearly shouted down the phone.

“Correct, Doctor Jones. Although, it wasn’t entirely difficult, you still guessed it. Another, and I shall tell you Joker’s location.” You better you intelligent motherfucker, I thought to myself. “Riddle me this, until I am measured I am not known yet how you miss me when I am flown.” I was now very certain that I didn’t like riddles, they were making my brain hurt. A word then came to my head and again I practically shouted it down the phone.

“Time, it’s fucking time!” There was silence, and I began to doubt my answer.

“Well done, Doctor Jones. Alright, if you head into the kitchen, you’ll discover the location.” With that, this riddle guy hung up. I pocketed the phone and ran out of the room and darted down the corridor and into the kitchen. Sure enough there was a map stuck to the fridge, and I didn’t even begin to think about how it got there. All I cared about right now was getting Jack back to me. My eyes darted over the map and focused on a certain spot circled in red pen. It seemed Jack was Sionis’ Steel Mill.


	23. The Steel Mill

Exiting the warehouse, I became aware of how silent everything had become. The black vans were not crowding up the front entrance like usual, and there was nobody around. It felt almost like I was the only person left alive on the planet. Of course that wasn’t true, because right now I was on my way to find Jack wherever he had been taken. Sionis’ Steel Mill? I had heard of it, but never seen the place with my own eyes.

People had spread rumours that the guy who owned the steel mill was a big time criminal who called himself Black Mask. Some employees at Arkham Asylum had discussed it before, and I had almost laughed for how funny the entire thing seemed. A well respected businessmen walking around in a mask doing his own little bit of criminality, the whole concept seemed ridiculous to me. Well, back then it used to, however now I could believe something like that especially after what I had seen lately.

I mean, I’ve just had a run in with bloody Two Face just a day or so ago. I had known why he was called that, but I had never accepted that he did indeed have two faces. It had definitely been one of the most bizarre things I’ve experienced, probably even more ludicrous than how I came to be staying with Jack. A face that badly burnt must hurt, the skin looked irritated as hell and I wondered as to why he didn’t do something about it. But then again, if he did he wouldn’t be Two Face. The disfigurement had become a part of him and he seemed to embrace it with open arms. If he was going for the terrifying look, he was definitely on the right track. 

I also hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Pam, Selina or Harley since we had parted ways at the courthouse. Then again, I’ve been busy with Jack the past day or so, I was very tempted to give them a call and ask them to check out the steel mill with me but then again I thought about the fact that none of them particularly like them, and despite Pam being my dear friend, I doubted that she would help me rescue the clown. Neither would Harley or Selina I thought.

There weren’t many people on the streets, only a handful of people and the atmosphere around gradually grew tenser as I walked along the sidewalk, not wanting to stop for anything. Occasionally, I’d see my face on a poster, the words ‘MISSING’ in bold black letters. It surprised me to see that these were still up and around the city, I thought people had forgotten about me still. Jonathan Crane’s face was also posted next to mine, his calm and collected face staring at me as I walked past.

I hadn’t seen Jonathan for a while now. I was shocked at how easily I had forgotten him since being with Jack. I knew he had been missing too, but it puzzled me as to why. When I had visited the Asylum to ‘borrow’ his research for Jack, someone on security said he had been looking for me and I wondered as to why I hadn’t bumped into him in the building.

Then I remembered my run in with Scarecrow, both times in fact. It felt like a dream mostly, I still wondered what substance that guy was using. Whatever it was, was some pretty strong stuff. The hallucinations I had experienced on both occasions still made me shiver and I hoped to some higher being out there that I never experienced them again. They were truly the worst things I had seen. 

I wanted to know who this Scarecrow guy was. It was clearly someone who was working at Arkham, considering both times I had encountered him it had been in that very building. I racked my brains thinking of who it could be. Maybe it was Doctor Jeffrey, he was always so quiet and had those eyes that made him look shifty all the time. Or maybe that receptionist, but that hunch was purely based on the fact that I did not like her one bit so I had dismissed that immediately. 

For some reason. my head was telling me that Scarecrow was Jonathan. I mean, it had always been in his lab that I had seen the guy in, and Jonathan had been the one to find me the first time I had gotten a face full of that gas which I had now nicknamed ‘fear gas’ for the emotions and images I had seen whilst subjected to it. 

It couldn’t be Jonathan though, I mean he was a nice guy, one of those goody two-shoes types you’d get back in high school. He was innocent of this, he had to be. No, someone else must have had access to that lab, maybe the Warden? He was the one who was overseeing the research, so maybe it was him in this Scarecrow facade.

Turning the corner, I stopped and looked up the large building towering above me. ‘SIONIS STEEL MILL’ printed in large letters hung on a sign above the gate that would allow me access to the industrial building. Maybe it was this Sionis person who was holding Jack hostage, or prisoner or whatever you would call it. I had never seen the guy and so wasn’t sure on what to look out for. The rumours said he was called Black Mask which I assumed meant that he did wear a black mask so that is what I would look out for.

Standing on the outside of the gate, I felt a bit overwhelmed at the task set in hand. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that there might be guards inside, possibly heavily armed, and i didn’t have a single weapon to fight back with. This was beginning to seem like a bad idea, the probability of me being killed before I even reached Jack was very high, especially if the majority of guards were carrying guns, I’d be dead within a minute of getting inside the building.

A cold air swept up around me, making me feel like maybe this really is a bad idea. The icy wind swept into every pore in my skin causing me a shiver, this felt like a sign of the worst to happen. But I was nervous, of course my brain was going to tell me to run in the other direction and never come back. I had to save Jack though, I loved him and I couldn’t just walk away a coward and leave him to the chances of fate, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I did.  
Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the gate which wasn’t exactly one of the quietest gates. If there were any guards nearby, they definitely would’ve heard it, which practically already sealed my imminent death sentence. I wondered just how old the building was, considering there was a very thick layer of rust that consumed nearly the entire surface of the gate.

The yard itself looked completely deserted, weird considering this guy was meant to be extremely rich and successful. It was strange to me, seeing how he didn’t have any security out in the yard and by the gate. I looked up and saw no snipers up on the roof either, so I was little reassured that I was not going to get gunned down before even reaching the entrance.

Reaching the door, I tried my hardest to ease it open as quietly as possible. I wanted to slip in unnoticed which would make it easier for me to reach Jack in one piece. Noise would alert anyone to my presence, which certainly wouldn’t help because I don’t have a weapon to defend myself with. Which was a bit of stupid idea, wasn’t it?

I had thought about going back to the warehouse and picking up a pistol or something. I knew Jack had some of those lying around the place. I had only shot a gun once, so I wasn’t exactly trained in using them. Nevertheless, I would definitely feel safer right now, if I had a gun within my hand. At least, I’d have some protection against guards. At the moment, I felt a little helpless without one. I guess I could always use my fists, but let’s face it, I was fucking weak when it came to strength.

Inside, the building was consumed in almost pitch black darkness. Any light that was lit was dim and made it hard to see what was in front of me. I was beginning to think that maybe I was in the wrong place, it seemed too quiet. The map on the fridge had definitely pointed out this place, and I wasn’t going to leave until I found Jack and brought him back home.

I turned left and found myself in a large corridor, still dimly lit. I had to squint furiously to make out what was in front of me. I was walking at a very slow pace to avoid noise and mostly to prevent myself from falling flat on my face. Straining hard with my ears, I began to hear a kind of rustling sound up ahead of me.

“Jack!” I whispered, not sure if it was friend or foe. The rustling noise started up again, only this time I couldn’t pinpoint the source of the noise. “Jack!” I called out again, and still no answer. The noise had now stopped, and I stood rooted to the spot. I don’t think it was Jack, but I had no idea who else it would be, unless it was a guard in which I was screwed if he turned the corner ahead of me.

My heart began to thump heavily inside my chest at the thought of being caught right in the middle of the corridor. If he did, then I would’ve let Jack down. The silence was beginning to make me feel sick and my stomach churned, worsening the sensation. Before I knew it, a pain seeped from the back of my head and everything went dark.


	24. I Loved You

I was getting real fucking tired of being smacked around the head. If I saw who I had served the most recent hit, I was going to tear his fucking throat out. This had happened at least four times, and it was beginning to irritate me a lot. Maybe I should start whacking people across the head, see how they like it. I can sure as hell say it isn’t fun from my end. I think my body was beginning to get used to these blows to the head because my head wasn’t pounding from the pain so much this time. But maybe that was the adrenaline rushing through my body right now.

I had woken up in a large room evidently tied to a wooden chair. Typical. It always had to be that got into these kind of situations. Only this time, there was nobody to save my ass. Nobody knew that I was here, so I couldn’t rely on Pam and the others to rescue me. I was on my own this time, and that’s when I began to panic.

I didn’t want to die like this. Alone and in this place. Whoever had brought me here was surely going to give me a painful and undignified death. I didn’t want to imaging dying horrifically, but right now that seemed inevitable. I had failed Jack, and I silently prayed that if one of us were going to live, I wanted it to be him. Suddenly, the door across the room swung open, revealing a slash of light and a familiar figure.

“You son of a bitch!” I screamed at Jonathan, tugging and pulling against the rope that bound me to the chair. If I weren’t restrained, I’d hit him square in the face.

“I can’t remember your language being that disgusting, April.” That fucker stood facing me, giving out the biggest, most smug look I had ever seen on a man.

“Fuck you!” I shouted. 

“You used to be a lot nicer, you know.” He tucked his hands into the pocket of his trousers and continued to stare at me.

“Where’s Jack?” I asked, more worried about him than myself right now.

“Not here.” He said calmly.

“What do you mean ‘he’s not here’.”

“Like I said, he’s not here. In fact, I think he’s finished his little business meeting and is heading back home right now.”

“You tricked me?!” I started to struggle against the ropes again, my wrists began to ache.

“It’s no use, you’re just going to hurt yourself even more if you struggle.” Jonathan began to pace side to side, the expression on his face never changing. Always staying calm.

“They said you were missing?” I said, slouching back into the chair.

“They said you were too.” He replied. “But it looks like I found you.” He gave a small smirk which made me slightly sick to my stomach.

“I don’t understand, Jonathan?” He stopped pacing as I said that.

“You never do, April.”

“So why am I here, and strapped to a chair?” I dreaded to think of the answer.

“Why are you here?” In a couple paces, he was stood directly in front of me, towering above me. He bent low so that he was face to face with me, At this angle, he looked intimidating. “You have no idea, do you?” I was starting to wonder what the hell I was meant to be in the know about.

“No, not really, hence why I’m asking.” Jonathan retreated a few steps.

“Well then, let me explain it to you!” He threw his arms open, walking backwards a little bit and then turning his back to me. He was staring at the wall in front of himself for a moment or two, before tilting his head to the side and looking back at me. “I always thought you were beautiful you know. Even at university.”

I had a feeling I knew where this was going, however I was hoping it wouldn’t. Right now, I just wanted the ground to swallow me up so that I didn’t have to endure this torturous moment. Just being in the presence of Crane was making me uneasy and driving me insane.

“The day you arrived at the Asylum, you looked beautiful then too.”

“Jonathan, please tell me this isn’t going where I think it is.” Saying that was clearly a mistake, because he ran back over to me and held my jaw tightly in one hand. He began to squeeze tightly, causing my eyes to tear up.

“Let me finish!” I nodded and he violently let go of my face. I was scared, Jonathan had never ever acted this, in all the time I had known him which was admittedly not very long, but still he seemed like a totally different person right now. I didn’t like it.

“As I was saying, you looked very beautiful. I admit, I liked you April. I liked you a lot.” Dear god, this was definitely going where I didn’t want it too. “When you accepted my dinner invitation, I was thrilled. No woman had ever said yes before, but you did which meant you became special to me.” This conversation was slowly becoming my very own version of hell. Why did Jonathan have to show up now, evidently full of revenge that I had forgotten that we were meant to have dinner at mine long before Jack escaped the Asylum. I never knew one man could get so upset over dinner. But I had a feeling that there was more to it than just that.

“You were the first woman that I thought I had a real chance with, you know maybe even begin to settle down.”

“Jonathan, I--” I cut myself off as he stared at me, clearly pissed that I had interrupted him.

“Like I was saying, I thought I could finally settle down. Maybe even start a family.” Crane had become crazy. We only worked together and had one dinner and he had already been thinking of starting a family with me. The thought of bearing Jonathan's children made me shudder. I was beginning to think that maybe he had become deluded.

“But then you had to go and disappear on me, didn’t you!” He screamed the last part of the sentence, which made me jump in the chair. I regained my breathing and attempted to speak to him.

“Look, Jonathan, you were sweet and really a nice guy. But, I don’t think that would’ve happened between us.” He began to pace up and down again, and I wasn’t sure if he was angry at me or just plain nervous. “If I’m honest, you were really just friend to me.” He didn’t like that answer.

“You know, the running away I could understand, but then you had to go and fuck that psychotic clown!” His temper was becoming increasingly worse. But I also wondered as to how he knew about Jack and I.

“How could you possibly know that?” Jon rubbed his forehead before answering.

“I had a little help from a friend.”

“It was the guy who called me, wasn’t it?” I asked. “Wasn’t it?” Crane nodded.

“Riddler, his name is.”

“I wonder why he’s called that.” I said sarcastically. I hated riddles.

“Yes, his love for riddles is peculiar.” He stopped pacing once more. “But an intelligent man, nonetheless.” I severely hoped that I didn’t run into Riddler ever again. I don’t think I could handle answering another one of his riddles.

“So, why call me all the way out here, you still haven’t answered me that.” Jonathan stepped slowly towards me, this time kneeling down. He stared at the ground, contemplating his answer before speaking.

“I loved you. I loved you, April. Why couldn’t you see that?” At this point, I couldn’t bear to look at him. His words were making sick. “I loved you, and yet you leave...for the fucking Joker?! What the hell is wrong with you? That man has killed lots of people, lots of innocent people. Yet somehow, you sleep with him?” I stared at the ground, not wanting to look at his face which was probably full of anger at this moment.

“You wouldn’t understand.” I mumbled.

“What did you say?”

“I said, you wouldn’t understand!” I shouted, just to make sure he heard me that time. Then something happened that I never expected. Jonathan raised his hand and whipped my cheek. My skin stung and my head was propelled to the side. That son of a bitch had hit me. Crane had definitely changed. But then again, so had I. We had both changed and right now I wasn’t sure if either change was good or bad. We were two completely different people from when we had first met, and Jonathan clearly disliked this a lot.

“See, look at what you made me do. Look at what you have fucking done to me, April!”

“You did this to yourself, you insane motherfucker.”I was expecting another slap across the face, but instead something different happened. Before I knew it, my head made contact with the concrete ground, and I was lying on my side still awkwardly strapped to the chair. Jonathan had kicked it over. Next thing I know, a gun was being held against my forehead.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t end you right now.” Jonathan said, a hint of pure hatred and anger in his voice. My heart thumped loudly inside my chest and I was just waiting for him to pull the trigger.

“Because this isn’t you, Jonathan.” I whispered. The barrel of the gun was removed from my head.

“No. This isn’t me.” He stood up and left me on the ground, my vision slightly obscured from having half my face stuck to the concrete ground. He walked toward the middle of the room, standing right in the very centre. Jonathan then began to pull something out of his coat pocket. A tattered and torn mask. Scarecrow.

“Remember this?” He asked, giving that smug look again, knowing that I had had absolutely no idea until this moment.

I knew it was Jonathan, I had said it to myself over and over countless time. I had dismissed those assumptions though because I had always thought that Jonathan was too kind hearted to become something as evil as this. Guess I was wrong though, wasn’t I? Crane had now become twisted and unhinged, there was not much left of the Jonathan I once knew.

“You fucker! I knew it!” I pulled at the rope once again, burning the skin on my wrist, desperate to get free and fucking kill him for he’s done. The fear gas I had been subjected to. He was the one that had created it. That was the research he had been working so hard on. Jonathan smiled, watching me struggle. He then lifted the mask and placed it over his head.

“So tell me, April. What do you fear?”


	25. Reconciliation

The doors of the warehouse front entrance swung open as Jack and his merry gang of henchmen trailed in one by one. All of them looked a little worse for wear, but it was a surprise for none. They had all expected something like this to go down but not to the extent that it did. The group lost three guys in total, not a lot but it was still a major loss to the small number of men that they already had. Jack knew that at some point he would have to go looking for volunteers to join his small club of followers. The more man-power they had, the better off they’d be in fighting situations.

Jack himself had not actually received any injuries to his body, he preferred his men to do the majority of the fighting and the shooting. Stretching out his tired and aching muscles, he trod into the kitchen to pour himself a well-deserved drink, so he thought. He gave a huge sigh realising that April had drained the last bottle of whiskey and so settled for a couple shots of vodka. He was going to feel that later on. At some point, he would ask the goons to go fetch him more whiskey.

The building was silent, too silent for Jack’s liking. Normally he’d hear movement, the sound of the tv or April talking to herself as she so regularly did. If he wasn’t so unhinged himself he would’ve thought it a bit strange. Nevertheless, he realised that she must be sleeping or something like that, and decided not to disturb her just yet.

Plopping himself down on the couch, vodka slipping out of the bottle, Jack switched on an old tv. Clearly stolen. Flicking channels, he reached the Gotham News station and left it on. A story was being read out on the little screen by a small woman, blonde hair, blue eyes and a little dress which colour did not compliment her greatly, Jack chuckled to himself as the reporter read a statement referring to the events of earlier, all of which he remembered greatly due to the fact that he was there.

A small playback clip was shown, cars were blackened and on fire, and goons in clown masks shot at goons in black masks. The shootout had been great, Jack thought, although he was a little disappointed that the deal had not gone ahead. Black Mask was definitely gonna be after his ass for a while now, but he’d figure a way to deal with Sionis sooner or later. Probably later, but Jack would get around to it eventually. He always did. A goon then presented himself in the doorway.

“Uh, boss?” Jack slowly turned his head to face the guy in a clown mask.

“What now? Can’t you see I’m busy?” He returned his gaze to the tv, trying to listen to the reporter tell a tale about a gruesome murder that had occurred just a few days ago.

“Boss, Joey’s bleedin’ out pretty heavily.” The goon spoke with a nervousness in his voice. This time, Jack didn’t even turn around to acknowledge the man but this time kept his focus on the small tv.

“Take him to April then, you know she’s good with that sort of thing.” He took a large swig of vodka, gaze still fixed on the small screen.

“Uh, okay, Joker.” With that, the goon left the room once again and Jack was left to wallow in his own company. The story of the murder had interested him greatly. The victim in question had been stabbed seventy three times and he wondered how long it had taken before the guy had died. He also wondered how much the whole thing had hurt. It was a peculiar thing to think of, but that was psychopathic clowns for you.

But then a strange thought popped into Jack’s head. Whenever he was around April, he was no longer a psychopathic clown but instead a man with emotions and feelings and who actually had a moral sense. It was a strange feeling but he accepted it for he couldn’t change his feeling towards the girl. It was true that he loved her, but he was finding it hard adjusting to this person he had kept suppressed for so long.

He tongued the inside of his scars, never quite getting used to the rough and smooth sensation of the mutilated skin. Licking them had become a sort of habit now, he had done it ever since they had healed years ago. They never used to look as bad as they do now, in fact the previous scars had been near invisible once they had fully healed. But a couple years ago, something inside of him snapped, the Joker inside rose up in anger and later on that evening he had slashed away at the scars himself, opening up the skin once more and letting the blood from the open wound pour down his cheeks. The pain had been unbearable for months, but he dealt with it, got used to it and eventually became Joker. The Clown Prince of Crime, a decent title but now his reputation was beginning to slip and the reason for that was because Jack was appearing for longer periods of time and he wondered how long it would be until Joker met his final demise. 

Draining the last of the vodka, Jack knew he’d regret that tomorrow once he woke up with a pounding headache that screamed ‘hangover’ to him over and over. For the first time in a very long while, he stared around the room noticing the state of the place. He remembered that the walls used to be filthy and the carpet so dirty it was impossible to walk on it barefooted without picking up some kind of bacterial infection from whatever was hiding in between the material. Now the walls were cleaner, still not the pearl-white they had once been but the colour had been lifted greatly and the carpet looked now as if it were finally safe to walk on it without shoes on. All of this was because of April. Jack hadn’t noticed it before, but she had been cleaning up the place, presumably whilst he had been out doing business or whatever else he did. Admittedly, the place didn’t look to shabby now, Jack thought to himself, it was definitely a lot more inhabitable now and he decided that he may just spend more time at home in the future. The goon that had previously interrupted him before had returned, looking more nervous than ever and appeared to be sweating bullets.

“Uh, boss we got another problem.” He spoke shakily.

“If Joey’s dead, I don’t really care.” Jack said simply, dropping the empty vodka bottle to the floor next to him, a gentle thud was heard as it landed on the carpet.

“It’s not Joey.” The goons replied, looking more nervous as he began to get to prime point of the tale he came to tell. “ It’s April.” Jack sat up quickly and turned his head to face the henchmen. “She’s gone boss.” Jack stared for a few moments, not really taking in what his goon had just said.

“What do you mean ‘she’s gone’?” He asked.

“Well, I went to look for her like you said, but she wasn’t in your room so I looked all over the warehouse and she’s not here.” The henchmen appeared to be breathing quickly and heavily, afraid of Jack’s reaction. Jack picked up the bottle he had previously dropped and jolted into a standing position. Within a few moments he lobbed the bottle toward the door where the goon was standing who proceeded to duck. The bottle hit the nearby wall, glass flew all over the place.

“God dammit!” Jack screamed, running his fingers through his messy green hair. The goon stood back up and prepared to have something else thrown at him. He proceeded to walk out of the door and look for his girl when he noticed something on the kitchen counter that he hadn’t previously seen. Picking up, he saw that it was a map of Gotham, a thick red pen had circled a particular building. That must have been where they took her, Jack thought. He also thought about how few his numbers were, and after his run in with Black Mask’s goons earlier, he doubtful that he would reach April alive inside Sionis’ Steel Mill. He was going to need help, but the people he was thinking of would never help him. He had to try and convince them, it was for April after all.

***

Knocking the apartment door, Jack was beginning to sweat a little, a strange phenomenon considering he was usually confident with everything he did. But these people were dangerous especially as a group. He shifted around on the spot, no one had answered the door yet and Jack feared that maybe they weren’t home, and he’d have to attempt to save April by himself. To his relief, the door opened, but the person who was now facing him didn’t look very pleased to see him.

“Why are you here, Joker? Come to hit Harley again?” Pam asked, clearly not impressed that the clown had shown up on her doorstep. She so wished to suffocate him with her plants, but she knew April wouldn’t be too happy about that, and so refrained from doing so.

“Uh, no. Actually, I’m here about April.” Jack scratched his head, and Pam looked confused.

“Well, she’s not here if that’s what you’re asking.” Pamela proceeded to shut the door in his face, but Jack swung his arms out to keep it open.

“I know she’s not here.” Pam stopped herself from closing the door, for once interested in what Jack had to say. “She’s missing.” He said. Pam took a deep breath, trying to process what the clown had just told her. She held the door open, inviting him inside the apartment, trusting that what he was saying was true. Harley was not in the main room, presumably hiding after hearing him at the door. They both stood just inside the door, neither of them sitting down.

“What do you mean, she’s missing?” I thought she was with you?” Pam questioned. Jack shook his head.

“I don’t know. I went out and she was gone by the time I came back. I found this on the kitchen counter.” Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out the map. He handed it to Pamela who eye it carefully.

“Why would she go there?” 

“I don’t know, Ivy.”

“And what, you’re asking for our help?”

“Yes.”

“Why should we help you, Joker?” At this point, Harley had emerged from one of the bedroom, peeking out from the doorframe. Selina had exited the kitchen and now stood just a couple of paces away from Jack and Pam.

“Look, I’m asking you to do this for April, I’m not exactly in Black Masks good books right now, and I won’t be able to get through the building with all his guards there. Not in once piece anyway.” Jack was pleading with all three women now, something he had never done before.

“We’ll do it.” Selina said, joining in with the conversation. Pam looked at her, shocked at how quick she was to want to help Jack. “But not for you. For April.” Pam now understood, and nodded in agreement. Harley too was now standing a couple paces away from the three of them, and also had her say.  
“I want to help, April too.” Jack awkwardly nodded, acknowledging her wanting to help. He turned back towards Pam.

“So, no hard feelings between us?” He asked, already knowing what the answer would be. To his surprise, Pam said something he didn’t expect.

“If we get April back safely, I’ll think about it.” Jack attempted a half smile, surprised at the sudden reconciliation Pam was showing him.


	26. What Do You Fear?

I wasn’t how long I had been lying across the floor still tied to the chair, but I could guess it was a pretty long time. Jonathan had ducked out of the room at what I estimated to be ten minutes ago. The pressure of my body weight was piling up alongside my head which made lying in this position a lot more painful than it should be. The floor was in a disgusting condition also and it made me feel a little sick not knowing what the dirtiness upon the floor was.

Most of all, I couldn’t believe that I had fallen into this goddamn trap. I knew something wasn’t right, I had known it right from the very start. But my mind had been clouded by thoughts of Jack and the possibility that he could very well have been in danger. I thought about him going home and realising that I was gone. I’m not sure whether his heart would break, or he’d become Joker again and go into a raging frenzy over the fact that I was not there. Maybe he would think that I had left him, then his heart would truly break, and I was the only one to know that it wouldn’t be true.

I was being held here against my will by the man whom I once called friend. But he was no longer that, how could he be after everything he’s done to me. The lying, the fear gas and now practically kidnapping me and holding me hostage. Or rather just keeping me in this room for his own revenge. I don’t know, but he certainly wasn’t a friend anymore, that ship sailed about an hour ago.

Jonathan Crane was Scarecrow, that bastard. He definitely wasn’t what I originally thought him to be; a kind-hearted man who I considered a great friend. Instead he had turned out to be some sick, twisted man with a heart blacker than anyone else I knew. I no longer respected him as a friend or a doctor. If I ever got myself loose of these bindings, I’d probably let him know what I thought, aided by my fists. I wanted to kick that asshole’s face until it bled, god knows he deserves it. It was clear that I had spent a lot of time around Jack, for I had begun to think thoughts so violent they scared me just a little.

The door swung open, letting a little light enter the room. Crane returned still donned in the mask which had been very poorly stitched, I must say. Although, I had to admit, it was a lot more difficult whilst talking to a mask instead of him; the mask did have the ability to make me feel very uneasy and a little uncomfortable. Whilst he wore the mask, I was talking to Scarecrow rather than Jonathan Crane. It was a little bit scary knowing that I was no longer talking to the Jonathan that was once a friend.

“You like it?” He asked me. His voice muffled greatly by the sack mask. At first, I had no idea what Jon was on about, until I realised that he was pointing to the mask covering his face.

“Not really, no.” I replied, feeling a little undignified still lying on my side bound to the chair. My right arm was beginning to fall asleep from having so much weight on top of it. Jon crossed his arms.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say, April.” Shaking his head as he spoke, he began to pace just as he had done earlier. It seemed to be a habit of his.

“Oh, go fuck yourself, Jon.” After saying it, I wish I hadn’t. Last time I had spoken out, Crane had slapped me across the face, and although a slap wasn’t likely to faze me, it made me worry that things might escalate from that. Scarecrow walked toward the darkest part of the room, and pulled a chair from within the darkness, setting it right in front of me and taking a seat upon it. Leaning forward, he began to rub his hands together, either nervous or patiently waiting for something. He clearly wasn’t thinking of setting my own chair upright again any time soon.

“What do you fear?” He said plain and simple. No emotion in his voice just cold words. Why had he become so obsessed over the concept of fear? It was no longer just a small research project. Jon had now taken it further, becoming consumed by the thought of finding the answer. But for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a clear answer to his question.

“Gee, I don’t know, spiders I guess.”

“No no no, that’s too generic, the majority of the Earth’s population are terrified of spiders.” He said. He started to sound agitated that I hadn’t answered his question to his full satisfaction.

“Well, I don’t know then, Jon.” I replied. I was beginning to get tired of his game already.

“Come on, think. Think of what instills the most terror inside of you.” He said excitedly. I actually started to think long and hard about my answer. Snakes? No, my uncle used to keep on as a pet, until it escaped one night and slithered off into oblivion. Heights? No. The dark? Nah, I always slept with all the lights off at home. Cats? Flowers? Bats? Clowns? Well, considering I’m dating Jack, then definitely not clowns.

Vomiting? Trees? Sunlight? What, I’m not a fucking vampire, that last suggestion was ridiculous. Oh, I could not think of one thing I was truly terrified of. I knew that there was something, but I just could not bring it to the front of my brain. It was hiding away in the back, not wanting to be discovered. Scarecrow watched me intently, waiting for the answer. He continued to rub the palms of his hands together which were beginning to glisten with sweat. He tapped the heel of his foot against the ground repeatedly, growing more impatient by the minute. He let out a huge sigh.

“I’m thinking, alright?!” I snapped. The more I chased the answer, the faster it ran away, eluding me. Scarecrow had practically put me on the spot, and despite him being a complete bastard, I felt I wanted to answer this question, having hidden it from myself for a number of years.

It had been a while since I had even thought of it. Years even. For so long I had repressed it, and now the blurry images and voices were all coming back to me. It was painful bringing them back, but I had to. I felt the only way to stay alive was to answer his question. Already there were tears in my eyes as the images became clearer and the voices grew louder. The gruesome scene played back in my mind, the screaming, the gurgling and the crying. The screeching of failing car brakes, the cracking of bones and tearing of warm flesh. The day my brother died.

God, it had been so long. It had been so long since I had thought about that memory. For so long, I had tried to make it all seem like a dream, so that none of it was real. But who was I kidding? Of course it was real, I had lost my own brother. I watched that day, as our car swerved and crashed head on with the truck. I watched as the metal pole came crashing through the roof spearing my brother like meat on a kebab, pinning him to his seat. My seatbelt had jammed, so we were both stuck inside the wreckage. Blood had filled up my brother’s lungs, drowning him slowly but very painfully. His shirt had been soaked in his own blood and he could barely say a word. I didn’t even attempt to unjam myself, I sat there, staring at him, staring at the pole that was draining him of life.

There and then, I had wanted to die with him. I couldn’t live without my brother, oh god, we used to do everything together. That time, in kindergarten when this boy, Jimmy had stolen my doll and threatened to tear her head off, I came home sobbing and crying into my pillow. My brother walked in, looking as cool as he always did and asked me what was wrong. I told him, and for the rest of the night he never said a word, not to me, nor Mom or Dad. The next day, there was a big ruckus at lunch. Running out into the yard, I saw Jimmy quivering on the concrete floor at my brother’s feet, sporting a bloody nose and black eye. My brother saw me and started to ignore Jimmy and the crowd of kids that had surrounded him, he walked over still with a calm look in his eye and handed me my doll back. Of course, the school had phones our parents and later that night, he got grounded and no supper; understandable due to the fact that Jimmy’s parents had called my Dad, sharing with him the lovely details of how Jimmy’s nose was now severely broken and would now need reconstructive surgery. But although, he broke a kid’s nose and got punished, I thought of him as the best brother in the entire world after that. He had always been the good kid, never stepping out of line, never cussing, always eating his vegetable, but that day he showed his love for me, the kind of love that only siblings could share. We were bound by blood, and had to, at all costs protect each other as best we could. 

The day I lost him was the day I thought I had failed as a sister. He had protected me, but I couldn’t have done the same for him. I sat there, eyes open watching him die. Amidst the wreckage, my mother had smashed her head on the steering wheel, knocking her out pretty hard. A man, who had been watching in his car nearby, had decided it to be his duty to help us. For a split second, I tore my eyes away from my brother, looking towards the front of the car and noticing that the hood was smoking and on fire. The witness had ran over and managed to pry open the side door, and began to untangle Mom from the front seat and dragging her to the side, away from the car. Next, he came to my side of the door, pulling furiously on the handle, until it swung open fast. The fire upon the hood, began to rise and grow bigger and the guy started to panic as he fumbled with my seatbelt, he too noticing that it was indeed jammed. After around thirty seconds of pulling and pushing and tugging, he withdrew a small pocket knife from his plaid shirt pocket and began to slice away at the seat belt holding me in place

Soon enough, the belt snapped and I was free, held among the arms of a stranger being carried to the side next to Mom who was beginning to come around. Blood spattered across her forehead, spilling from the point of contact with the wheel. Nowadays, she covered the scar up with bangs, calling it a ‘hideous reminder of the past’. As she was coming around, she noticed it was just me sat by her side and began muttering ‘my son’ and ‘where is he?’. The man clapped his hand to his mouth realised he had left one of us behind. But before he could take one step closer, the car exploded in a shroud of flames and smoke, my mother screamed and wailed realising that her son had still been in the car at the time of the explosion. She ran towards it, but the stranger wrapped his arms around her, holding her back, preventing her from getting hurt any further. I just sat there, like I had done in the car, watching the flames eating up the remainder of the wreckage. The thought of losing my brother hadn’t become clear to me that day. But it was clear now.

Later on that day, Dad had come home from work, only to hear the dreadful news of what had happened to his family. He had heard whilst listening to the answering machine as he sat in his chair and read the afternoon paper. After rushing to the hospital and making sure I was okay, he spent a lot of time with Mom, attempting to calm her down and bring her back from the brink of insanity. The coroners had taken my brothers body to the morgue and had invited my parents to identify him. I wasn’t allowed, ‘too young’ they said. But he was my brother, I had every right to see him. But my Dad wouldn’t allow it and so I remained in the children’s ward, breathing in the nauseating smell of medicine and alcoholic hand wash. 

In my later years, I had heard my parents discussing what had happened on that day at the morgue. I was meant to be in bed, sleeping at the time, but I had snuck down hiding at the top of the stairs in the shadows listening to them speak. I remember them saying that a DNA test had to be performed in order for my brother to be identified. His body had been so badly burned that it didn’t even look like a body. The skin was so badly burned that some had even melted onto his bone and there was nothing left of his hair or facial features. Mom and Dad had him buried rather than cremated. Cremation seemed to much like a reminder for what had happened to him. I have only visited his grave twice since he was buried, once at the funeral and the second time a few years later before I had decided to forget the whole thing completed, preferring to not remember him than keep him as a painful memory forever. It had worked and I had managed to continue with my life more or less successfully. Until this day. Today, all the memories of the past were being dug up and I was forced to look at them, even if it instilled terror upon me and made me want to run away. I couldn’t run however, not even if I tried. These demons would catch up with me eventually.

“Death.” I said aloud, my voice quivering slightly. Scarecrow cocked his head to the side at my sudden answer. “Losing the people I love.” I continued. 

“Interesting.” He replied, his voice still muffled and hard to make out through the mask. He leaned forward on the chair and placed his hand under his chin, holding his head up. “Why death, and losing people?” He inquired. I really didn’t want to relive the memory again and explain it to him. Once today was enough for me.

“It’s a long story. I gave you your answer, didn’t I?” There was silence for a moment and then he stood up. At first I wondered if he was going to leave again, leaving me stuck on the floor again. However this time, he bent down over me and heaved the chair back into it’s original position. I could feel my blood rushing to my head, dizziness overtaking me for a moment, clouding my vision and then everything returned to normal. There were pins and needles in my arm for a second too but they soon disappeared. I wondering if that was all Jon wanted from me, to help with his research or something. But he wouldn’t have just tied me up like this just for a little bit of help. There had to be more too it than that, and sure enough I was right. Scarecrow withdrew a canister from his pocket, one that I recognised instantly.

“If you won’t tell me willingly, I’ll use force instead.” My heart thumped inside my chest. I didn’t want to experience all of that terror again.

“Fear gas.” I whispered to myself, but clearly not that quietly because Scarecrow replied.

“Familiar with my invention?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Of course you are, I mean you’ve been subjected to it twice and still you haven’t gone insane.”

“Was I meant to?” I asked.

“Well, that’s what it’s made to do, but clearly the concentration wasn’t high enough.” I didn’t reply this time, so he carried on, palming the canister in his hand. “However this time, I made a solution with triple the concentration, so I’m hoping for some results this time.” 

“Fuck you.”

“I’d gladly let you, however right now we’ve got an experiment to carry out.” Shit, I was in deep shit right now. I prayed that Jack or Pam or Selina would come for me. I couldn’t do this again, I wouldn’t survive it. Triple the concentration? I am so fucked this time.


	27. Bloody Fists and Car Crashes

I was in deep water right about now. Here I am, tied to a chair in a dark and dingy basement; not exactly original but it still scared the shit out of me, not being able to get out or do anything. I had come face to face with my kidnapper only to find that it’s Jonathan Crane who has evidently become psychotic and crazed, too obsessed with his research. As of now, he was standing in front of me, sporting a quite badly stitched mask resembling his facade: Scarecrow. 

My heart was thumping louder than before, as Jon continued to palm to the canister between his hands, purposely trying to make me nervous before his sick little experiment, That fear gas was definitely going to be the end of me, and I wasn’t ready to accept it just yet. I had always accepted that death was inevitable, that it happens to every human, animal and plant on this earth and that it happens eventually no matter how hard someone tries to avoid it. Yet somehow, I just felt that I wasn’t ready to die yet, fuck, things were just starting to look up and in just a few moments Crane was just going to throw it all out the window as if it were trash. Although, now that I think about it, if it were between mine or Jack’s life, I’d rather mine.

Triple the concentration? The first two doses I had received were already enough to send me over the edge yet I had always come back to the sane part of my head. This new dose will definitely cause me to become insane, just like Scarecrow said. If I didn’t die, I’d surely be placed in Arkham within one of the cells for the rest of eternity. But which would I prefer, death or insanity? It’s a hard choice really, because on one hand death is easy and pain doesn’t have to be felt anymore, yet insanity the pain is prolonged, mostly inside the mind, and I wouldn’t be me. I’d be a shell, a memory of myself replaced with an insane version that has completely no concept of human life and has no clear structure of emotion or thoughts, or words or actions.

At this point in time, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to live or die. My thoughts were all over the place, and I wasn’t sure if I had a future right now. My death sentence might have already been decided by Scarecrow and I would have no idea. There could be absolutely any kind of substance hidden within that canister, could it be fear gas, or cyanide? Whatever it was, I wasn’t going to like it, not one bit. Scarecrow had every intention to make me suffer for choosing Jack instead of him. It was all one big feat of jealousy on his end. Jon couldn’t just accept the way that things happened, move on with his life. He had to punish me before he could do that, and that stripped him of his title of being a man. Men don’t punish women, that makes them cowards, wife beaters and utter scum.

I mean, I know Jack has had his own dark past, especially when it concerns Quinn, but that was the Joker, the facade. Jack, like I have said before, is a completely different person to the one I met whilst working in the asylum. Jack was kind, sweet, still a little bit crazy but that made our relationship fun. But that’s what it’s about, having fun together and experience odd adventures with one another, nothing is ever smooth sailing, and if it is then either partner isn't interested or is maybe hiding something from the other one. Jack made life exciting for me, before I had met him, everything in my life was dull, boring and controlled, but now I just never know which way the wind is going to take me.

Although, I didn’t really imagine the wind to take me to this dreadful location, sitting in front of the man I once called friend, who was threatening to send me over the edge and into insanity, just for the sake of revenge. I had a right mind to punch him straight in that face of his, however my hands were currently out of use which was a shame. The longer he just held the canister in his hand, the more I just wanted everything over and done with. If he was going to do it, then he should just do it now and save me the anxiety and fear. I could sense that he was smiling and laughing beneath that mask of his.

 

“Time to hear this story of yours, April.” He said. I wish he’d take the mask off so I could hear him a little clearer, although I guessed it didn’t really matter anymore. Placing the canister back into his pocket, he replaced it with a switchblade. I was about ninety eight point one percent sure that he wasn’t going to cut me that. Surely that would ruin his experiment. I was right, instead of cutting me, he cut the ropes that bound me to the chair. Finally free, I swung my right arm back and then forward to gather momentum and hit Scarecrow in the face, like I had intended to do since being put in the chair. My fist made contact with his nose and I was pretty sure that I had broken it, Scarecrow’s head swung to the side from the force of the hit, and I stood there quite proud of myself, although I hadn’t anticipated what happened next. Holding his face with his right hand, he swung right back at me.

“Bitch!” He screamed, landing a punch just underneath my right eye. For a small man, he had a powerful left hook, and it hurt a damn lot. I had only been punched in the face once before but that was due to my fault. Jon didn’t hold back however, after swinging with his left, he swung with his right, hitting me straight in the stomach, which made me want to throw up whatever was in the stomach which I doubted was a lot. I keeled over, and he elbowed me in the back, catching me directly on the spine, a pain shot through my legs and I fell onto my face on the floor. Using his foot, which was encased inside a thick leathery boot, he kicked me straight in the stomach and I involuntarily curled up into the foetus position. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream and wish that this was all a dream. I wanted my friend back, my life back, just everything to be normal again. No, not normality, I wanted Jack, I want this day, this moment to never ever exist. I wanted to be back underneath the royal purple bedsheets of the four poster bed, wrapped in Jack’s arms, head resting on his chest, listening to his heart beat slowly and calmly.

Scarecrow knelt down and bent his head so that his was level with mine, my body sprawled upon the floor, pain rushing through every part of my body. Lifting his right hand, he used it to sweep away the dark brown hair covering my face like a curtain. The mask became clearer to me, and I didn’t want it to. He stroked my cheek gently, almost affectionate but I knew it couldn’t be like that. It could never be like that now, not even if Jack wasn’t around. I knew who Jonathan really was, and I hated it. Hated it with every muscle and bone in my body. I had never felt any pure hatred in my life, ever, until this day. Jonathan was the very embodiment of evil.

“You’re doing a great thing for science, April.” With that, he placed the canister back in his pocket and placed his hand over the pin of the object. He held it there for a while, trying to instill as much terror and paranoia upon me. He gave a deep, sinister laugh before ripping the pin from the canister, allowing the gas escape into the surrounding air. I was in too much pain to do anything right now, I buried my head into my chest and tucked my knees in, too. I could hear the gas escaping from the canister and dissipating into the air. I could sense that I was breathing it in now, sucking it right inside my throat and down into my lungs. Then everything went silent.

I opened my eyes, and I was sitting inside a car. One that was all too familiar to me. I looked to the left and there was my brother, Henry sitting on the other side, head leant against the window, looking outwards at the trees rushing past; a blur of green and brown. I looked towards the front and there was my Mom, strapped into the driver’s seat, gripping the wheel tightly. She looked younger, and I could never remember her looking so beautiful before. I guess time changes people. I was confused however, this was never the normal reaction I got with fear gas, usually it was just dancing shadows and dark voices, but then I remembered that this was a triple concentration of the substance.

I looked down, and saw that I was wearing the same blue frilly dress I had worn when this had happened before. Chills made their way down my spine, making my hairs stand on end. I knew what was going to happen, and I had said that that I would never relive it again. I guess my wish had been denied. I began tapping my foot on the floor and gripped the seat belt tightly. I stared out of the window just as Henry was doing, watching the sun go down as we drove past trees, houses and then onto the freeway. Just seeing Henry was enough to send me into insanity, I hadn’t seen him like this for years; alive and full of life. It was surreal, and I knew it wasn’t real but I so desperately wanted it to be.

I wanted to scream at my mother, force her to pull over so that we miss the oncoming truck that would kill my brother, but something stopped me from opening my mouth. I felt as if I shouldn’t be here, like I was out of place. I had experienced this once before, and shouldn’t be doing so for a second time. They probably couldn’t hear me even if I screamed loud enough for God to hear. I kept forgetting that it was all just a hallucination brought upon by the fear gas. It may be just a dream state, but it still felt real. I could reach across and place my hand on Henry’s shoulder, but I didn’t dare myself to do that. I had to remember that back in the real world, he was dead. If I reached out and touched him now, I would convince myself that he is still alive thus throwing me into insanity.

We turned the hard bend, and I knew that any second a truck was going to appear on the wrong side of the road; our side of the road. I rubbed my palms together nervously, spreading the thin layer of sweat on my skin all over my hands. My heart beat against my chest and my breathing became staggered, the tension was going to give me a heart attack if I carried on anticipating the inevitable. I could see it now, the pharmaceutical truck that was going to smash into our tiny little car, it was in the right lane and then slowly began to drift into our lane, I could now see that the driver was drunk and had fallen asleep at the wheel which had ultimately caused the truck to drift and kill Henry.

“Mom?” I called out, hoping she would hear me, but nothing. “Mom! The truck!” I screamed. Neither her or Henry looked around, both of them couldn’t hear me or acknowledge that I was there. “Henry! Henry, get out of the fucking car!” He continued to stare out of the window, yawning as he ran his fingers through his hair, oblivious to what was about to happen to him. I tried to unclip my seat belt but it stayed put, keeping me prisoner. I couldn’t watch this, not again. It’s too much to bear. I looked out of the front window, watching the truck come closer and closer, other cars avoided it, but not ours, we head straight for it.

My body lurched forward, as we hit the truck, the momentum caused me to hit my head on the back of the chair in front of me. We came to a sudden halt and my body was thrown back. Somehow the same hadn’t happened to my brother, his seat belt had stopped him from being thrown forward, and everything felt odd; different. The windows had smashed and broken glass surrounded me, threatening to cut me. Suddenly, there was a pain in my lower stomach, and I could feel something rising in my throat. I looked down and saw a metal pole submerged inside my stomach. Breathing was becoming an increasingly difficult job and every breath was becoming shorter and shorter. 

Looking over, my brother was still sat, calmly staring out of the window just as he had done before the crash. I turned my head to the front and saw that my Mom was not passed out at the wheel like she should be, she was staring out of the window just like Henry, taking no notice of me. My stomach muscles had tightened around the pole, and the pain was searing through my body like hot water. I was paralysed, unable to move, unable to speak. I had been put in my brother’s place.

This was punishment for not helping Henry, wasn’t it? God was punishing me for not even attempting to help him by putting me in his place, killing me instead. It’s alright though, Henry deserves life more than me, he was always the good one, protective and kind. What did I do? Nothing really, I was never like Henry, never good enough for Mom or Dad. Tears began to form, sliding down my cheeks, soaking my face. I sobbed quietly to myself. Why was this happening? I want to go home, but I didn’t know how. A pole had been impaled into me and now I was started to cough up blood. It was beginning to fill up my lungs just as it had done with Henry, now I knew what it felt like to be him at the time that he died. I now felt even more awful for not helping him when I could. A laughter began to fill the car, quiet at first but it grew louder and louder, a scratchy and deep sound that caused the hairs on my neck to stand up. I looked over to Henry once more, who began to turn his head only it wasn’t his face. Facing me was the head of Scarecrow, laughing at me. I turned to the front, Mom’s head had been replaced with Scarecrow too, also laughing at me. I couldn’t take it. I threw my hands over my ears in an attempt to drown out the sinister chorusing laughter. Oh God, kill me now, please.


	28. Saviors

During her moments of madness due to the fear gas that had inevitable consumed her body, she had sprawled herself across the floor of the basement room. It was dark and only a slash of light was crawling in through the one door in the empty space. Scarecrow stood in the corner, silently observing her behaviour, the way moved and the way she spoke about her current dreamworld. It was fascinating for him to see this. He had never used this kind of concentration with the solution before and the results were better than expected. If she survived this just like the first two encounters, he swore that he would start using her as a sort of lab rat, to test the drug. 

Jon wanted to use this drug; or fear gas as April called it, for a more commercial use. When the Warden had asked him to fulfil this task, he had hoped it would have only taken a few weeks to create due to his sheer knowledge and genius. But then things had become complicated for the well renowned doctor. Firstly, April had showed up, and they had worked very closely together. The Joker had been admitted into the Asylum and he had been assigned to the case, which only added to the work pile he had built up. It had become so hard to work on his project, and progress with solution was very slowly.

Before today, he hadn’t been using a very strong concentration for it was only a sample, and he had been using it patients at Arkham, so if any heavy concentrations were used, it would be detected straight away. The project was meant to be a secret and if the doctor’s in medical found out that he was testing it on criminally insane patients, there would be a law suit, which would make both him and the Warden look very bad. That was the very last thing he wanted to do.

Jon placed his hands in his pockets, and resisted the urge to walk over to April. He started to breath heavily, which caused an intense heat to rise up inside his mask, reddening his cheeks and creating sweat on his forehead. He ripped off the mask and took a deep breath, thankful for the cool air that was circulating the space. Rubbing his sweating forehead, he made a mental note to go home and create a better mask later on tonight after this was done. Jon decided that if Miss Jones survived this ordeal, he would take her back to his home, just as he had always wanted to do.

He dared to walk over to the girl who appeared to be sleeping, when she was really experiencing a vivid nightmare surely to make her insane once she woke up. Sinking to his knees, his pale hands hovered above her body for a moment, it looked as if he were about to raise her up into the air like a magician, but instead he placed his left hand onto her back. His long fingers gently stroked her spine, trailing down slowly, the bottom of her back and entering a region which was unfamiliar to him. He had never touched a woman, ever. He withdrew his hand quickly and held it close to his chest.

“No.” Jon said to himself. Even though, he was aware that he had become slightly mad since creating the Scarecrow facade and the obsession of fear had consumed him. The small part of Jon that was left knew that it would be wrong to take advantage of the girl whilst in this state. He had already betrayed her, abused her trust and intended to kill her eventually, but even the thought of doing this, just felt too wrong.

Whisking himself away from the limp body. Jon skulked back into the shadows where he felt safer. He pocketed the mask, intending to place it back on when she woke, if she woke. He began to wonder if anybody would come looking for her. They didn’t know where she had been taken and if they did, Scarecrow had a few bodyguards that were expendable. He doubted there would be any company though, he was sure of it.

April’s dream was beginning to turn into a nightmare, and she started to thrash around upon the ground, kicking up the thin layer of dust that resided on the surface. Scarecrow smiled to himself, the drug was definitely working and was better than he had ever expected. After today, he had decided that he would start using heavier concentrations straight away, for they produced far better results, and this was good. It meant that the research was now heading in a direction once again, and Jon was determined to complete it more than ever.

A gunshot began to echo throughout the corridor, and Jon could hear heavy bodies crashing to the ground. The noise grew louder as the assailants made their way through the heavily guarded hallways, clearly with ease. Jon began to panic, soon they would walk into this room and ruin his experiment. He had been so sure that they wouldn’t get through his henchmen but evidently his calculations had been completely wrong. Running over to April, he stood over her, protecting his precious lab rat.

Out in the corridor, Jack was gunning down a large fat guy with a sack covering his face. Selina caught one with her whip, using her nails she carved deep cuts into his skin, the goon wailed and clutched his face, she ended the attack with a swift kick to the head, knocking him out. Pam had used her abilities to conjure up vines, wrapping them around a skinny goon, choking the life out of him. Harley swung at every single thing that moved with her baseball bat. Almost hitting Pam in the process, she hit a guy right in the temple, cracking his skull causing him to go crashing towards the ground. 

It was dark in the hallway, and the four of them found it difficult to see exactly where they were going. Harley tried running ahead, only to trip and fall into Selina who hissed at her, warning her to keep her distance. With Harley being this noisy and clumsy, she could compromise all four of them. Jack was beginning to regret bringing her along, but alas he needed the numbers. After this, he would probably never speak to her ever again, not that he ever wanted to in the first place anyway. He just wanted to find April and bring her back home safely.

He felt lost without her, like he was losing his new self. Joker was trying to creep back into existence and control. For the past few hours, he had been having thoughts of chaos and anarchy, something he hadn’t thought about for a while. For once, he didn’t want to think about it, he wanted to be somewhat normal again. April, was the only person in the entire world who seemed to understand him. She rarely asked about what Joker had done in the past, and preferred to focus on her life with him in the present. He liked that, April never judge him or said anything terrible about him. He needed her right now, so desperately needed her and his heart actually twinger for the first time in years as he pined for her. Selina could see the look on Jack’s face and immediately knew what was up. Selina could see through any mask.

“We’ll find her.” She said in a soft and soothing voice. She placed her hand on his shoulder for a moment and gave a sympathetic look. Jack merely nodded towards her, and the four of them tried to quietly make their way down the dim lit corridor. Coming to the end, Pam who was situated on the far right, noticed a door that was slightly ajar. Peering through, she saw a body sprawled across the floor.

“I’ve found her.” She whispered. Jack whipped his head around and began to march straight into the room, not bothering to think of what could be inside the room with April. The others tried to caution him, but it all just went through one ear and out the other with him. Pam and Harley followed him whilst Selina hung back just outside the door.

Jack rushed in, and seeing April across the floor made his heart twinge even more. Harley and Pam stayed rooted to the spot as he made his way over to her. When he reached a certain distance, a gun appeared from the shadows hovering above April and pointed right at him. The hand that gripped the gun appeared from the shadow too, and then a body and a face. Jack stopped dead in his tracks, staring down the barrel of the gun as if it were the last sight he would ever see.

“You’re not taking her.” Jon said shakily. He had suddenly become very nervous; he needed his experiment.

“Uh, why not?” Jack asked. Jon rearranged his grip on the gun and took a deep breath.

“I need her.” Jon replied, a sense of dominance in his voice. Jack paused for a moment before answering.

“I think I need her more than you, Craney.” Jack took a step forward, Jon cocked the gun and pointed it back at the clown, making a clear warning to stay back or a shot will be fired. “What have you done to her?” Jack looked down and had noticed how out of it April looked, it wasn’t natural.

“She’s a very important part of my experiment.” Jon replied bluntly.  
“I said, what have you done to her?” Jack was beginning to lose his patience.

“I’ve given her a very heavy dose of my experimental solution.” Crane explained.

“You mean that fear gas stuff right?”

“That’s right.” Jon kept rearranged his grip on the gun because of the sweat forming on his palms. Everytime he did so, Jack thought he was going to pull the trigger, but he wasn’t scared. On the inside, he was laughing hysterically because this man, who had once had almost everything, gave it up to become a psychotic kidnapper obsessed with the psychology of fear.

“Well, I think I’m going to have to cut this experiment short, Craney.” Jack knelt down to pick up April, but Jon got there quicker and held the gun to her temple, point blanc. Now Jack started to panic, if Jon was going to shoot anybody, he wanted it to be him. He couldn’t let April die, not like this, not ever. He was going to save her one way or another.

“Stay. Away. From. Her.” Jon’s voice became more clear and assertive. A dominance had become clear, and Jon wasn’t going to give up April easily. Jack was running out of ideas, Jon was going to shoot one of them, and Jack had no idea what he’d do if April died. He’d probably die with her, he couldn’t live without her. That’s why it was important that she survived tonight.

“Come on, Jon. Of all the girls in the world, why her?” Jack was asking a very dangerous question.

“I loved her.”Jon said quietly. But his voice grew louder. “And you took her away from me!” He held the gun harder against April’s head, holding his finger against the trigger. 

“I didn’t take anybody away from you.” Jack said, noticing how crazed Doctor Crane had become over the weeks. “April chose who she wanted.” Jon had tears in his eyes. “And that’s her decision, not mine, or yours. Hers.” Jon sobbed quietly to himself, at the realisation of Jack’s words. 

“What’s wrong with me?” He said between hiccups and tears.

“There was nothing wrong with you.” Jack stated. Jon looked up. “Until you became...this.” Jack used his hands to gesture at Jon, making it a bit clearer for him. Jon’s face screwed up and he sobbed once more, tears trailing down his cheeks and falling softly onto April’s sleeping face. “Look.”Jon raised his head, staring directly at Jack. “If you let her go now, maybe she’ll forgive you in time.” Jack was making a dangerous bet with a man who was holding a gun against his girlfriend’s temple. Jon was contemplating the idea for a moment, pulling the gun away from April, Jack began to breath a sigh of relief. But suddenly, the gun was pointed back at her temple.

“No! I need her! This experiment is important to me!” He screamed.

“Now Jonat--”

“Shut up, you psychotic fuck! You are not taking her away from me!” Tears continued to stream down Jon’s face as he tapped the barrel of the gun on April’s forehead. The gun was removed from her head and was now pointing at Jack, but he wasn’t worried; like he said, he’d rather it be him than her. “Maybe I should just shoot you, then she’d be mine.” Jack was holding up his hands in a surrendering gesture.

“I uh, don’t think it works like that, buddy. I think it’s up to her to decide that.” Jack said.

“No. With you gone, I won’t lose her this time.” He raised the gun so that the barrel was aiming directly between Jack’s eyes. Jack took a deep breath and waited for the shot. He waited for his life to turn black, although the darkness never came. A slinky black figure appeared from the shadows above Jon. She kicked him around the neck and his gun arm shot up just past Jack’s arm. Jack felt the backlash from the bullet against his sleeve. Jon slunk to the ground next to April. Jack smiled at the figure.

“Boy, do I owe you, Selina.” The catwoman appeared from the shadows, wearing a smug look on her face. She had in fact saved the day, and he did indeed owe her for saving his ass and his girlfriend.

“Yes you do. Now come on, let’s get her home.” Jack nodded and gently picked April up in his arms, holding her tight. He never wanted to let go of her again, for fear of ever losing her. He held her tightly to his chest, thanking whatever entity there was out there and of course Selina for saving her.


	29. Epiphanies

My head was swimming with various emotions as of right now. In one corner of my mind I was anxious as to what had become of me, was I dead? Living a dream? Or insane? In another corner the feeling of dread began to consume me, had I actually been killed in that car crash instead of Henry? I could still feel the sensation of the metal pole piercing my insides and wondered if I had been hallucinating the entire thing or whether it had been real. My lungs felt heavy inside my chest as if blood had really pooled up inside of them, but I was still breathing; at least I hoped I was. I also felt joy, realising where I was. No longer was my body pinned against the back seat of the mangled car, instead my tired limbs and aching torso were wrapped snugly in purple sheets. I still was not sure if I was dreaming or not.

Amidst the emotions swirling around like a hurricane inside my utterly exhausted brain, there was a dull pain there too. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I am very much sick of being hit around the head, and it was becoming an increasingly dangerous habit that I was trying my very hardest to avoid. Although lately it seemed as though I was a magnet and danger was strongly attracted to me. I couldn’t run, for being a magnet, the danger followed and it was practically impossible to outrun it. No matter how many corners I turned, how many dodges and zig-zags I performed, it still caught up with me, and always made it’s best efforts to fuck with me.

And Jack. Jack was the big flashing neon sign that flashed and danced and screamed ‘Over here!’ Ever since that man had entered my life, it had been full of nothing but chaos. Not that chaos was a particularly bad thing, in fact I had learnt to embrace the chaotic lifestyle but with the mind-numbingly blissful adrenaline rushes and the surge of lust for action comes the price of potential death, unwanted mutilation and other nasty surprise one never expects.

Alas, the potential death, unwanted mutilation and other nasty surprises were all worth it, if one considers the fact that I get to race through it all with the person I love, which just so happens to be the one flashing the great big neon sign, directing all the danger toward me. But not only did I have my lover, I also had three very dear friends, criminals too, yet three extremely precious friends, whom of which have helped me adjust to this life; a life of crime. They have held me, cradled me and watched me as I have grown into this new person I have become.

Although, right now I still wasn’t sure if I was alive or dead and this was all a dream. I prayed to some kind of entity that I was really alive and well, and everyone whom I love will appear and hold me and we’ll all get on like a house on fire. Although, I feared that any moment now, the bed sheets holding me would disappear and a cold sensation would wash over my once warm body and I would slowly be dragged down into the deepest pits of hell, because we all know I definitely wasn’t going up to heaven, or whatever paradise was up there. I would be pulled down into the fire filled depths of Satan’s lair, where I would spend eternity facing punishment for my various sins I have committed in the past few weeks. All of sudden, there was a gentle knock on the door, and my heart thumped, fearing it was the horned devil coming to claim me. The door open and revealed someone else, thankfully.

“Afternoon.” Jack said quietly, head squeezed between the door and wall. He began to walk one step at a time cautiously, until he reached the bed and placed himself at the foot of it, watching me.

“I thought you were Satan.” That was the first thing I said to him. For a moment, I wasn’t sure whether Jack was going to laugh or cry at this statement, which I admit, is a very strange one to say.

“What?” He asked, wanting me to repeat the embarrassing blunder I had just spoken.

“Nevermind.” No reply was given, so I carried on. “I feel like shit.”

“You and me both, doll.” Jack stated, rubbing his hands across his thighs in a nervous action.

“Am I alive?” I wondered if this was a dream, and this was the Jack of my imagination. 

“Yes, fortunately. You have Selina to thank for that.” Selina? I was beginning to get confused, I didn’t see the full picture just yet. After being beaten by Scarecrow and having to relive my dreadful past with new consequences, I hadn’t really learnt what had happened after that and how I got to be back in my own bed.

“What happened?” I asked him, curious to know exactly I was back home, talking to Jack.

“Well.” Jack started, rearranging his position and clearing his throat; he also habitually licked his lips like I had seen him do a thousand times before. “I couldn’t find you in the warehouse when I returned home, and there was a map left on the kitchen counter which I presumed was where you had gone. Wasn’t sure why though. Anyway, I called upon your dear friends and asked for their help, I mean I wasn’t exactly on Sionis’ side at that moment, and couldn’t get you by myself. Surprisingly, they agreed. We got there and Pam spotted you in this dark room, so I ran over and out of the shadows popped your dear friend, Craney.”

“That bastard is no friend to me.” I spoke to myself, but Jack had heard it. He continued with his story however.

“He had this pistol in his hand, and he uh, pointed it right at me. Wasn’t scared though, I’m quite used to having guns pointed at my face. The part that got me shitting myself was when Jonathan pointed the gun at you, right at your temple.” Jack demonstrated the action with his hands, causing me to visualise the whole scene. It seemed terrifying hearing that a crazed man had a gun pointed at me whilst I was busy dreaming about car crashes.

“Shit.” I said, Jack nodded, and continued through my interruption.

“So yeah, I began to shit myself cause I was thinking ‘what if he does this? what if he actually takes away the one thing I’ve ever loved?’ and for once, I didn’t go about the situation all guns blazing and all that jazz. Proud of me, doll? But yeah, instead I tried to talk him out of it you know? Tried to reason with him as to why it’d be a bad idea to blow your brains out, and at first he listened, started to accept what I saying, but then he just snapped and pointed the gun back at you, and then at me, and that’s when Selina took to the stage and knocked that asshole the fuck out.” Jack had now finished his story, and I was trying to envisage it inside my mind. I thought about me sprawled out across the floor, Jonathan hovering over me, a crazed look in his face, a tear in his eye, hand gripped tight on a gun I wasn’t aware he had had on his person previously. I thought about Jack standing there, hands held high, reasoning with Jon, Selina then whacking him over the head and watching as he himself slumped to the ground next to me. In a swift motion, i jumped up from the bed sheets and threw myself at Jack, holding him tightly, and weeping into his neck.

“Hey, hey now.” He cooed softly into me, stroking my hair. “Why are you crying, doll?” I hiccupped slightly as I tried to breathe between sobs and tears. Still holding Jack, I gathered myself up again, trying to stay calm.

“It’s just.” I sobbed once more before explaining my sadness to Jack. “For a moment, I thought I was dead. I thought I’d never see you again, or hold you like this. It terrified me.” Jack gave me a sympathetic look and pulled me closer into him. I leant my head against his chest and breathed in his scent, it was a sort of musky scent mixed in with a little sweat and gasoline, but I liked it. I had grown accustomed to it.

“Well.” Jack spoke quietly this time. “I’m here now, you’re here, everything is perfect again.” He leant his head on top of mine. “I carried you all the way home, you know?” I looked up at him.

“Sorry, I’m a little heavy.” I sniffed heavily, recovering from my small breakdown just now.

“You’ll be surprised to find that you are quite light.” I laughed quietly and returned my head against his chest, listening to his beating heart. A sign that let me know that I was indeed alive. And boy, was I thankful to be alive and in the land of the living.

***

The warm bath heated my skin, turning me into a lobster, but the warmth was too good. It had been too long since I had enjoyed a bath filled to the brim with fruitful bubbles which melted into my skin upon contact. It was pure bliss. I closed my eyes, and went about putting all my thoughts to rest. However, there was one I could not hide in my mind any longer. On the counter next to the bathtub, a phone was presented on the surface. For about an hour, I had contemplated calling the one person who I hadn’t spoken to for a very long time. Opening my eyes, I withdrew my hand from the bubbly water and picked up the phone. Dialling the number, listened to it ring, waiting with baited breath for an answer.

“Hello?” The receiver had answered the call.

“Hi, Mom.” There was silence on the other end, and I began to wonder if this was a good idea.

“April? Oh my God, is that you?” My Mom practically wailed down the phone.

“Yeah it’s me.”

“Oh my God. It feels so good to hear your voice, honey.” It was good to hear her voice too. As much as I felt like a disappointment to my parents, it still felt nice to hear them again, letting me know that I was truly alive. “They said you were missing, possibly dead.”

“Not dead.” I said.

“Where are you? Your father will come get you.”

“No no, Mom, I’m fine really.”

“I knew working at that Asylum was a bad idea.” Here we go. “Didn’t I tell you last year?” She said.

“Yes, you did. Look, Mom I wanted to ask you something.” My mother hesitated before answering.

“Um, yes, sure, honey.”

“Do you hate me for surviving that car crash?” There was silence for about half a minute or so, this was becoming a delicate subject.

“April…” Mom said quietly.

“Would you have rather Henry lived, and I had died?” I waited for the answer I was sure I knew. I waited for the ‘yes April, Henry was a much better child’.

“No.” That wasn’t the answer I expected.

“What?” I wasn’t sure if I had heard her properly.

“I mean, what happened to Henry was tragic, it devastated your father and I. I’m not even sure if Dad has completely accepted it. But both of us were grateful to God that you had survived that crash. You were the little light that kept us alive.”

“So, how come all of these years, it’s felt like the both of you...well hate me. For so many years, all you did was patronise me and try to control my direction in life.” I lifted my leg out of the hot bath water, letting the cooler air hit the skin. I then placed the leg back into the water again, letting the warm sensation wash over it again.

“Can you blame us honey? I had already lost one child, and I was making sure I wouldn’t lose the other. I wanted to keep you safe, wrap you in bubblewrap and never let anything harmful near you.” That was understandable, and I think that if maybe I had kids and that had happened to me, I’d do the same as my mother did with me. “I know I may have been hard on you, and I very much apologise for it. You’re a grown woman, and you can make decisions for yourself now, but never forget, I have loved you since the day you were born, and each and every day my love grew, it never wavered or stopped. After the accident, I started to love you more than ever.” That was all I wanted to hear. It was what I had wanted to hear for so many years. I no longer felt guilty for what happened the day I lost Henry, and instead felt relieved that my mother and father didn’t hate me. But Mom wasn’t done yet. “April, where are you?”

“Oh you know, staying with a friend. I’m making a new start Mom.” I said. The entire thing was very true, but she didn’t have to know the full details.

“But, I wanna know that you’re safe. You’re not taking drugs are you?”

“No Mom, I’m not addicted to drugs. And yes, I am very safe, safer than I could ever be.” That last bit was a little lie, but if it helped her sleep at night, then it had to be said. “OKay, I gotta go, Mom.”

“Oh, okay, honey, be safe, I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.” I said quietly.


	30. Birthday [END]

It had been weeks since the incident with Jonathan Crane. Since then, he has been arrested by the GCPD and sent to Arkham to carry out the rest of his days in a cell. This was all thanks to an anonymous tip left for them by yours truly and her clown partner in crime. We had given them a very thorough statement and even left a little bit of the evidence for them, just to make sure. There hadn’t even been a trial so I had heard, they had just taken the hard evidence and prosecuted him on just that. At least he won’t be bothering me or anybody else again.

Sometimes I still had nightmares about that evening. Nowadays it has become less common, I’m moving on, learning to forget. But it was a hard path to tread to get to where I am now. A few nights after being brought home, I would wake up during the early hours of the morning writhing around inside the bedsheets, clutching my stomach, a thin layer of sweat present on my skin. For a while, Jack was completely terrified, worried that I was becoming unhinged caused by late effects of the fear gas. Luckily, it’s become less of a habit and for the majority of nights, I sleep like a baby, clutching Jack tightly, so he tells me.

But even amidst all the darkness and despair, there is a bright light at the end. Today is a very special day, for me mostly. It’s my birthday. Something I had forgotten for a while but glad that I had remembered now. It felt like a lifetime since my last birthday, and a number of things had happened since this time last year. I got a job at Arkham Asylum, left my job at said building, fell in love with a clown, and become a professional criminal. Although, we all know that the journey to this day wasn’t a smooth sailing as all that. There were a few bumps along the road, should I dare mention meeting Harley, Selina, reuniting with Pam, robbing my first bank, receiving my first bullet wound, meeting a man with two faces, answering riddles, facing my fears and cheating death on more than one occasion.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have loved every single moment of my crazy adventure and if I could go back and change it, I don’t think I would. I couldn’t go back to my previous life, with all its normalcy and conformity. It was boring, I see that now. Now, I had everything I could have ever wanted, a lover, good friends and memories I’ll never forget. It was a like a never ending dream, and every single moment I feared that I’d wake up back in my old bed in my dreary apartment.

I felt as though I had aged a lot in a year, mentally as well as physically. My limbs felt wearier than they should, and my mind was more or less pretty much exhausted by the end of the day. I was getting old far too quickly, but I had learnt to just accept it and enjoy my life. Which was exactly what I was doing, enjoying my short time on this planet, making it worthwhile and something that people will remember, something that I’ll remember right up until my day of death arrives to take me away from the world of living.

Jack and the others were planning something today, I just knew it. When I had woke this morning, he wasn’t on his side of the bed. I had heard no word from Pam or the girls, ringing their cellphones multiple times had made sure of that. When I got up, I noticed a dress hanging on the wardrobe door, deep royal purple in colour. I knew this had to be something planned, because I knew I never owned such a thing until this morning, and being a special occasion, I was slowly figuring out what the dress was for.

I had slipped on the silky number about ten minutes ago, and had been staring at myself in the bathroom mirror trying to think about the last time I had worn a dress and made myself look pretty for someone. That last time, was when I had had dinner with Jonathan. I didn’t regret it, not a bit. Back then, he used to be a sweet person, he had still been sane and a good friend. It was just a painful remember of times before. I thought about Crane now; insane, deranged and utterly mad. He wasn’t the person he used to be, and that was the part that made me sad. But alas, one cannot change the past and so instead must move on confidently.

I worked my tangled brown hair into a classic bun, working a few strands of hair loose to prevent it from looking so tame. This had been the first time in a long while that I had pulled it up in this fashion. For so many weeks, I had let it hang down past my shoulders, letting it grow and become wild. It had taken a full fifteen minutes to completely brush out all of the knots and tangles earlier on. I think half of my hair had come out with the brush. Oops. Sometime last week, I had managed to acquire a bit of makeup and so spent the next few minutes, applying a light dusting of foundation - I did not want to end up looking like a tangerine, then a pale shade of eyeshadow accompanied by a thin line of full black eyeliner and ruby red lipstick to finish off the look. I stared at the face looking back at me in the mirror and I hardly recognised the girl. She looked so classy and and delicate. Soft porcelain features that I did not remember having. For weeks, I had only seen the rough looking, chaos withered face of mine, a look that I had grown accustomed to looking at on days similar to this. I noticed a familiar face staring at me from the corner of the mirror.

“Beautiful.” Jack whispered. I turned around, faced the man that I loved and smiled at him. Today, he was not wearing his greasepaint, there was no black, white, or red colour present upon his skin. He still had his green hair, and purple suit, but then I guess with my dress we kind of matched today. It was a special occasion after all.

“Jack, the dress.” I couldn’t finish my sentence, no words would come to mind. Jack took a large step towards me.

“Call it a present, it is your birthday, doll.” He smiled. Not with his scars, but with his lips this time. It was a unique sight to see.

“About that.” I had one hand on my hip now, looking up at him, smiling.

“Your birthday?” He asked, smiling back at me, placing his hands in his pockets.

“Mmm, you wouldn’t happen to be planning anything to do with that, would you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe we should check the living room to find out.” Jack said. I giggled a he held out his hand for me, and I took it. He led me away from the bathroom and out of the bedroom and we walked hand in hand towards the living room. “Close your eyes.”He whispered and I did. With my eyes closed, I held onto his hand tightly as he led me through the door, Taking one foot inside, there was a loud popping noise and a chorus of cheering. Opening my eyes, I saw a crowded room full of goons and friends. 

Pam was wearing a dark green dress, that slid down her body sleekly and ended at her ankles, her red mane flowing out behind her wildly. Selina wore a small black number that made her seem as graceful as ever. Harley stood next to her, sporting a black tutu and an outfit of red and black, her hair still in pigtails and wearing her usual facepaint. She was bouncing up and down excitedly, holding a cake in her hands. Selina was giving her a look to say ‘don’t you dare drop it, Harls’. I couldn’t stop myself from beaming with happiness. I had no words to say, my mind was a flurry of emotions, all happy and grateful for this day. The goons were no longer wearing their masks, Jack must have given them permission to take them off today.

***

About two hours had passed, and all of us had eaten enough cake to fill our bellies for months. We had all laughed and danced and were becoming a little exhausted from being on our feet for a while. I had received presents from both Pam and Selina, my favourite being Pam’s which was a small potted plant which would listen to me and protect me whilst I slept, just like the ivy plants at her apartment. It was a cute looking thing, but Pam warned me that the cuteness is just a facade, I regarded her caution and decided that I would give the plant a name later on. Selina’s present was just as good, she had produced a large box and looked utterly pleased with it. Inside the box, was a small black kitten sleeping soundly in a little basket. I had never really owned a pet before and so was overjoyed with the small creature. Harley chimed in, saying that the gift was from Selina and her, which I suspected was a cover up for the guilt she possibly felt for forgetting my birthday. I didn’t really mind, to be honest, just her being at the celebration was good enough.

After that, Jack had taken my hands and led me out of the celebration and to his office. I was a little worried about what he may have been suggesting, but as I stood in the middle of his office, I saw him produce a small rectangular box from his desk drawer. It was wrapped with purple paper, and a green silk ribbon to finish it off. A label was attached to it, with a detailed font sprawled across it, ‘April x.’ I stared at him with widened eyes for a moment, Jack was sat on the desk, casually swinging his legs back and forth.

“Call it your second present.” He said, smiling harder than before. Looking down, I delicately pulled the ribbon and it slipped off the box with these. I lifted the lid and revealed what was inside. Laying on a bed of tissue paper, was a shiny silver pistol adorned with detailed engravings. Along the barrel, the letters of my name were spelled out, in letters just as fancy as the rest of the engravings on the gun.

“It’s beautiful.” I said, admiring the weapon in my hand. Jack hopped off his desk and walked towards me.

“Well, I figured with all the trouble we get ourselves into, you could use some protection, besides me.” I smiled, he smiled, and I reached up to give him a small peck which turned into a full on heavy kiss, full of passion, gratitude and love.

“Thank you,” I whispered to him.

“Thank you, for showing me that there is indeed some light in the world.” He cupped my face gently. “And that light is you, April Jones.”


End file.
